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LICHEN deformis.
Clumsy Indented Cup Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Leathery, pale yellowish grey. Stems
tubular, thick, mostly simple. Cups small, irregular,
sharply toothed. Tubercles scarlet, minute.
Leaves roundly lobed.
Syn. Lichen deformis. Linn. Sp. PL 1620. FI. Lapp,
n. 433. t. 11. f . 5. Achar. Prod. 189. PFith.
v. 4. 38. Hull. 303. Lightf. 876 . Relh. 470.
L. pyxidatus p. Huds. 554.
Lichenoides tubulosum minus ramosum, cauliculis
crassioribus difformibus. Rail Syn. 68.
Baeomyces deformis. Achar. Meth. 334.
Coralloides crassius subincanum, calicibus dentatis.
Dill. Muse. 95. t. 15. ƒ 18.
LlGH TFO O T, like many father botanists, thought this
among the doubtful species of the Cup Lichens, and most
probably a variety of L . cocciferus, commonly called Scarlet
Cup Moss. We think it as likely to be distinct as any of
its tribe; and being one of the rarest kinds, we hope it will
not be thought superfluous in our work. Very few coloured
figures of any of this difficult tribe having been published, it is
surely desirable to have them perpetuated somewhere. Theorists
may dispute for ever which of them are species and
which varieties, for we know of no experimental mode of deciding
the question.
L . deformis is found in shady dry woods. Its general colour
is more inclined to yellow than that of the preceding. The
leaves are all radical, dilated,'roundly lobed. Stems almost
always simple, tubular, thick, inflated or wrinkled, smoothish,
each terminating in a small shallow cup, very irregularly but
sharply toothed at the edge, each tooth bearing a little bright
scarlet tubercle.