CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
G en. C har. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Crust dispersed, minutely granulated,
somewhat fibrous, bibulous, of a tawny olive.
Tubercles minute, blackish brown, with a paler
border of their own substance; finally convex,
and deprived of their border.
Syn. Lecidea dolosa. Ach. Meth. Suppl. 11.
O b s e r v e d , in great abundance, on a rock called O’Donogh-
hue’s prison, at Killarney, by Sir Thomas Gage, who, on comparing
his specimens with the collection sent by Acharius to the
Linnaean Society, thought himself tolerably sure of the above
synonym. The description of that author answers well to our
plant, except that his specimens grew on the antient barks of
oaks and spruce firs.
The plant before us covers the uneven surface of the grey slate
rock, in wide and broken patches, of a tawny olive brown, here
and there yellowish, consisting of fine, spongy, seemingly downy,
inseparable granulations, instantly imbibing any moisture. In
this particular it agrees with our very curious L. spongiosus,
t. 1374; but the fructification is that of an Acharian Lecidea,
not a Collema, and consists of minute sessile tubercles, of a very
dark brown when young, with a paler border of their own substance.
Their disk, which is at first nearly flat, becomes subsequently
more convex, and black, with no remains of the border.