Jfytj [ 2582 ]
C O L L EM A multipartitum.
Many-branched Collema.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algae.
Gen. Char. Shields orbicular, horizontal, nearly
sessile, superficial, with a gelatinous accessory
border.
S pec. Char. Frond radiating, fleshy; segments repeatedly
forked, fan-shaped, crenate; convex
above; concave beneath. Shields prominent, at
length blackish and flat.
C o m m u n ic a t e d by Sir Thomas Gage from Killamey, in
Ireland, where it abounds on walls and rocks.
The fronds are fleshy, but not so very gelatinous as those of
some other species, of a dull blackish olive, radiating from a
centre, which they soon leave bare; sometimes becoming dispersed
in small broken fragments, which lose their concentric
disposition. The whole plant is deeply and repeatedly divided
into wavy or twisted segments, sometimes rather linear, but
dilated, forked, and subdivided towards the extremity, and bluntly
but copiously crenate at the broad tips. The upper side is always
convex; the under channelled or concave. Shields copiously
dispersed over the upper surface; at first sessile, but soon becoming
elevated; reddish brown and slightly concave, with a
thick even border, when young; but subsequently flattened,
blackish, with much less appearance of the border.
We have a most elegant and finely divided specimen of this
Collema, but without shields, gathered in Westmoreland in 1782,
which we could never refer to any described one; and we now
readily concur with Sir Thomas Gage’s opinion, in establishing
it as a new species.