L I C H E N pallidum
Tale-leaved Dot Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Frond leafy, somewhat imbricated, lobed,
notched, pale greenish grey ; slightly spongy and
black beneath; the outermost lobes naked and
pale on the under side. Tubercles immersed,
black.
Syn. Endocarpon pallidum. Ach. Lichenogr. Univ.
v. 1. 301.
B r o u g h t from Ireland by Sir Thomas Gage, Bart. It grows
on rocks covered with a thin coat of earth, and composes rather
broad, irregular, but not much interrupted, patches of small leafy
leathery fronds, whose round, crenate, wavy lobes lie over each
other, spreading gradually from the centre. Their under side is
at first smooth and whitish, but the black spongy substance, by
which the middle of the plant is attached underneath, gradually
spreads, though Dr. Acharius observes it to be free from fibrous
radicles. That author appears to have been but imperfectly
acquainted with the tubercles. We find them black, nearly
globular, though a little depressed at the top, which is nearly on
a level with the surface of the frond into whose substance they are
sunk. The colour of the frond itself is a light greenish grey, prone
to assume a tawny hue, like other neighbouring species.,