L I C H E N microphyllus.
Small-leaved Cushion Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algee.
G en. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Slightly imbricated, depressed, fragmentary,
on a dense, black, fibrous cushion : its segments
grey, lobed, crenate and granulated at the
edge. Shields tawny, with a pale smooth border.
Syn. Lichen microphyllus. Schrad. Spicil. 97. t. 1 . f 4.
A t length we have the pleasure of clearing up a very obscure
and mistaken plant, on the authority of a specimen
sent by Dr. Schrader to Mr. Turner, which proves it distinct
from L. carnosus, t. 1684. We learn from Mr. Borrer that
the latter has been repeatedly sent by Swartz and Acharius as
Parmelia hypnorum: whereas the true L. hypnorum, see v . \ l .
t. 740, is P. lepidora of Acharius, as we have discovered
some time ago.
This true L. microphyllus was gathered by Mr. Borrer and
Mr. Hooker on trees at Inverary, and in glen Ach-na-shilloch,
Boss-shire ; also by Mr. Turner previously at Bodmin and by
loch Katherine. Professor Acharius, it seems, aware that
this plant is not described in his Methodus, means to call it
Lecidea triptophylla ; but we apprehend it is a true Parmelia,
as well as his Lecidea pannosa, to which it is closely allied by
its dense cushion of inky-coloured fibres, unaccountably overlooked
by Professor Schrader, by which they both approach
P.plumhea, our Lichen plumleus, t. 353, and our affinis, t. 983.
------There is indeed but little of this cushion in the latter. It
is altogether wanting in L. carnosus, t. 1684.
Young patches of the plant before us are circular, old ones
irregular. The fronds, at first crowded, depressed and uneven,
separate into scattered fragments, of a greyish hue,
smooth above, lobed, rounded, granulated and powdery at
the edges, the centre becoming almost shrubby, like some
coralline, as happens decidedly in Lichen pannosus. Shields
unfrequent, central, small, sessile, of a tawny dull orange,
with a pale smooth border.