y ûû.
l i c h e n cæspititius.
G r e e n T u r f y L i c h e n .
CRYPTOGAMIA Algae.
Gen. Char. M a le , scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Fronds clustered, ascending, leafy, pin-
natifid, cut and crisped ; bright green a b o v e ; white
beneath. T u b e rc le s from the disk o f the leaf,
co n v e x , reddish brown, on tubular stalks.
Syn. Bacomyces cacspititius. Per soon in Usl. Annul,
fasc. 7. 155. Ach. Meth. 325.
T h e only knowledge we have of this elegant plant is from
specimens gathered on the mossy trunk of an aged oak in the
New Forest, Hants, by C. Lyell, Esq., last October. We
have no specimen from Professor Acharius, nor from the original
discoverer and describer of the species, the celebrated
Persoon; but their descriptions leave no doubt upon our
minds.
The fronds form broad patches among moss, upon the
ground or decayed trunks of trees, and are upright or ascend-
ing, clustered, but not very closely crowded, a quarter or
half an inch high, each spreading from a tapering tubular base
into a sort of cornucopiae form, dilated upwards, pinnatifid,
jagged, crisped and spreading at the extremities; the upper
surface concave, of a bright pea-green; the under convex,
and, as well as the crisped edges, white. Tubercles one or
more from the central upper part of each leaf, convex, often
umbilicated, of a light red brown, on shortish, tubular, pale
stalks, one of which sometimes bears several tubercles. Small
dark brown sessile warts also occur on the disk of the leaves.
This species is one of those nearly allied to the Cup Lichens
both in the fronds and tubercles, but which do not bear cups.
J/S/6