C 2049 ]
LTC PI EN encaustus.
Encaustic Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
G en . Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Imbricated; its segments linear, wavy,
tumid, constricted, repeatedly forked, solid, convex
on both sides; of a dirty unpolished white, with
black specks, above ; black, opaque, wrinkled, without
radicles, beneath. Shields reddish-brown.
Syn. Lichen encaustus. Sm. Tr. o f L. Soc. v. 1 . 83.
t. 4. f 6. Ach. Prod. 123.
L. multipunctus. Ehrh. Crypt. 305.
Squamaria pulla. Hoffm. Pi. Lich. v. 2 . 28. t. 32.ƒ. 2,
Parmelia encausta. Ach. Meth. 202,
S e n t from Ben Nevis by the Rev. Dr. Stuart as a distinct
species from the preceding, with which every British botanist
besides, even Mr. Dickson in his H. Sicc. has confounded
it. This is not at all to be wondered at. We plead guilty to,
the same charge, nor is it till after fhe most careful comparir
son of a series of specimens, that we are satisfied the dirty illr
looking Scottish plant can be the same with our elegant alpine
one, to which, from its appearance of having been enamelled
white, as with fire, on a black ground, the name of encaustus
was originally given.
The segments vary prodigiously in breadth, as well as in
the smoky white of the upper side. They are distinguished
from L. stygius by numerous black dots on that side, and by
the blueish-black wrinkled under one, destitute of radicles,
and pale at the ends. The shields vary in hue from a bright
bay to a deep chesnut. Their border is whitish, inflexed and
crenate.——Hoffmann mistook this Lichen for Lightfoot’s
pulluSf our aquilus, t. 982.