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L I C H E N plumbeus.
Lead-coloured fpongy Lichen.
C R Y P T O G A M I A Alga.
G e n . C har. Male, fcattered warts.
Female, fmooth fhields or tubercles, in which the
feeds are imbedded.
S p e c . Ch a r . Imbricated. Segments lobed, obtufe,
greyith; clothed underneath with very thick,
blueith, fpongy down. Shields fmall, flat, rufty-
coloured; their margins entire.
Syn. Lichen plumbeus. Light/. Scot. 826. t. 26.
ƒ. 2. With. Bot. Arr. v. 3. 187.
L. caerulefcens. Hud/. Fl. An. 531. Dick/. H. Sicc.
/a/c. 10. 24.
Lichenoides tenue et molle, Agarici facie. Dill.
Mu/c. 179. /. 24. ƒ. 73.
B r o u g h t from Cardiganthire laft fummer by Dr. Smith.
It grows on trunks of trees, in the mountainous counties of
Great Britain, not unfrequently.
The fronds are remarkably thick and cork-like, elevated
from the bark on which they grow by a denfe fpongy coat of
blue or lead-coloured down, that is often prominent and vifi-
ble beyond the margin of the leaf, which feems to be forced
up by7 it. The whole plant has very much the texture of
Boletus ver/tcolor, as Dillenius well obferved; though, not
having feen it recent, his defcription and figure are far from
excellent. Mr.Lightfoot’s are much better. Theupper fur-
face is fmooth, but not fhining, often longitudinally wrinkled.
The fhields are very numerous, fcattered over the difk of the
frond, and often cluftered and confluent, of a fmall fize, flat,
reddifh-brown or rufty-coloured, with an entire margin nearly
of the fame colour. Specimens which bear no fhields are frequently
nearly covered with grey granulations or warts, which
have been prefumed to be the male flowers, and are what
Hedwig takes for fuch. We are inclined to fufpeft them to be
rather analogous to gemma, or the bulbs of Lilium bulbi/erum,
Dentaria bulbi/era, &c. and that (as in thofe) the plant which
bears them has a lefs tendency to bear flowers or feeds; though
thefe warts do alfo occur on the fhield-bearing fronds. We
have never however traced them to young plants.