J lc> [ 2575 ]
L I C H E N confinis.
Sea-weed Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algæ.
Gen. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Shrubby, solid, erect, tufted, branched,
olive-black ; branches nearly cylindrical, swelling
upwards, pitted at the top.
Syn, Lichen confinis. Achar. Prod. 208. FI. Dan.
n 879. f 2.
Stereocaulon ? confine. Achar. Meth. 317 •
Fucus pygmæus /3. Turn. Hist. Fucor. v. 4. I f .
S lR THOMAS GAGE, Bart., to whom we are obliged for
this remarkable plant, informs us he first received it from Miss
Hutchins, but afterwards gathered the same on the inundated
rocks of the Kenmare river, Ireland.
It is one of those ambiguous cryptogamic productions whose
genus, if not its natural order, remains in uncertainty. Mr.
Turner, “ that exquisite eryptogamist,” as he has been happily
called, ranks this production as a variety of Fucus pygmceus,
t. 1332. We never dissent from our friend, on any subject to
which he has given his attention, without great scruples, nor are
we led by superior confidence in Acharius to do so here ; but, on
a careful investigation, we clearly perceive more of the hue, texture,
and flavour of a Lichen, than of a Fucus, in the present
minute plant, and the tumid pale extremities of some branches
indicate a near approach to Collema, to which genus it might
perhaps without violence be referred ; whereas every thing in the
texture and habit of the pygmceus, points out a Fucus.