A R T H 0 N I A Swartziana.
Swartzian Arthonia.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
G en. Char. Receptacles in an uninterrupted crust,
shapeless, without a border, smooth, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Crust thin, membranous, scaly, cracked,
cream-coloured. Receptacles black, depressed,
roundish, w'avy, rather uneven.
Syn. Arthonia Swartziana. Ach. in Schrad. New Journ,
v. l.fa s c . 3. 13. t. 4>.f. 1.
F o u n d by Mr. W . Borrer upon the smooth barks of trees
in Sussex; and on being sent to Dr. Acharius, it was returned
by him with the above synonym. It is one of those plants,
of the Lichen family, which have given this learned investigator
the most trouble, and on which he has at last founded
the above new genus. We deem it therefore important to
publish the plant at any rate, whether the genus should remain
or n o t; but we must confess that if we could with satisfaction
have referred it to any established one, we would have
done so. It might indeed have been forced into Lichen, but
only till that whole tribe were reduced to order.
The crust is thin, membranous, uninterrupted and circumscribed,
of a dirty or yellowish white, cracked, and
scaling off elastically here and there. Receptacles black,
hard, numerous, small, depressed, rounded, but irregularly
wavy or angular, being of an indeterminate figure, without
any border. Internally they are palish.------We have alluded
to the present genus a tp . 1847.
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