LICHEN carnosus.
Little Fleshy-shielded Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algae.
Gen. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Imbricated, flat, light brown, smooth:
its segments dilated, rounded, crenate; mealy and
blueish at the extremities. Shields prominent, thick,
with a flat orange-red disk, and border coloured
like the frond.
Syn. Lichen carnosus. Dicks. Crypt fasc. 2 .2 1 . t. 6.
ƒ . 7. With. v. 4. 33. Hull. 293.
L. microphyllus, Schrad. Spicil. 97. i. l . f 4.
T h i s pretty Lichen seems very little known. Mr. Dickson
first found it on rocks in the mountainous part of Scotland.
Our specimens were gathered in North Wales by J. W. Griffith,
Esq., who sent others to Dr. Withering. Mr. Turner,
on whose authority we depend for the synonym of Schrader,
justly observes that the L. microphyllus of Acharius is not this,
but our L. escharoides, v. 18. t. 1247.
The fronds spread horizontally over mosses, forming small
irregular patches, attached by minute radicles. The segments
are flat, sometimes ascending, oblong, wavy, smooth, somewhat
imbricated, repeatedly subdivided, dilated, rounded and
crenate towards the extremity; their colour is a light brown,
very pale on the under side ; the edges are tinged with blue,
and slightly powdery; the inner substance of the frond is also
blue or greenish. Shields solitary or clustered, small, prominent,
with a flat orange-red disk, and a smooth slightly
elevated border, of the colour and substance of the crust.—In
natural affinity this species comes among the first Imbricarice
of Acbarius’s Prodromus, and according to his more recent arrangement
is a Parmelia,