S P I L OMA versicolor.
Variegated Spiloma.
, CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
Gen. Char. Receptacles shapeless, without a border,
hairy and powdery, in an uninterrupted crust.
Spec. Char. Crust thin, leprous, cracked, greyish,
variegated with white or yellow. Receptacles depressed,
flattish, rounded, sometimes confluent,
very black.
Syn. Arthonia versicolor. Ach. in Sckrad. New Journ.
vol. 1. fu se . 3. 9* t. 4. f 9.
G a t h e r e d on the rugged bark of old trees in Norfolk
and Suffolk by Mr. D. Turner, who sent it to Swedenfor.
the determination of Professor Acharius. That learned botanist,
being just then intent on establishing his new genus
Arthonia, referred this and some nearly allied- species to it,
which we cannot but think more properly belong to Spiloma,
on account of their rough, hairy and powdery receptacles;
whereas those of Arthonia are firm, smooth and even, like
the shields of a Lichen, with which also they agree in their
cellular internal structure.
The crust of the present species is uniform, not very distinctly
limited, of a thin, even, finely leprous substance,
variously cracked; white within; externally smooth, variegated
with white and a pale smoky grey; occasionally with a
yellow or greenish tinge. The numerous receptacles, intensely
black both within and without, are scattered over the.
crust, of various sizes, and of a rounded figure, but often
running together into oblong spots. They are sunk in the
crust, and nearly flat.
2070.
O ct / iH O p /uiU iA iid Jo u i/ijA .
*