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S P I LOM A auratum.
Golden Spiloma.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algcs.
Gen, Char. Receptacles shapeless, without a border,
hairy and powdery, in an uninterrupted crust.
Spec. Char. Crust tartareous, rugged, greenish or
greyish white. Receptacles convex, rounded, black;
orange-coloured within.
T h i s , perhaps the most’curious of its genus at present known,
was first discovered by Mr. Turner and Mr. W. Borrer on Wren-
tham church, Suffolk. It grows also upon the hark of fir and
other trees. In the latter case the crust is thinner and greener;
on stone walls it assumes the thick tartareous rugged appearance
of many leprous Lichens, being internally very white
and chalky, externally greyish, extremely tumid and rugged.
The receptacles are numerous, rounded, convex, outwardly
of a brownish, not very intense, black. The black coat is
thinner than in the last-described species, and covers another,
of about equal thickness, of a fine orange hue, which comes
in sight, either spontaneously, by the ripening and scaling off
of the black surface, or by any injury offered to the latter, so
that the whole plant is often rendered very conspicuous by the
copious display of this orange-coloured part.
1 Muerijf