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L I C H E N saturninus.
Saturnine Gelatinous Lichen.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
G en. Char. Male, scattered warts.
Female, smooth shields or tubercles, in which the
seeds are imbedded.
Spec. Char. Leafy, gelatinous, membranous, dark
greenish lead-coloured ; glaucous and downy be-
neath; its lobes ascending, rounded, wavy. Shields
scattered, reddish-brown, with a thin border.
Syn. Lichen saturninus. Sm. Tr. o f L. Soc. v. l. 84
Dicks. Crypt, fuse. 2 . 2 1 . t. 6. f 8. Ach. Prod.
132. /Pith. v. 4 . 6 0 . Hull. 2 9 8 .
L. myochrous. Ehrh. Crypt. 2 8 6 .
Parmelia saturnina. Ach. Meth. 221, /Finch
Guide v. 2. 5 8 .
IVIr . DICKSON discovered this on trunks of trees in Scotland,
about the same time that I gathered it in France and
Savoy. Mr. Turner favoured us with our present specimens
from Killin, North Britain. Ehrhart gathered his at Upsal,
where it had escaped the notice of Linnxus, but Professor
Acharius remarked and described it by the name of discolor.
Which, though excellent, he has given up to our prior appellation.
This species resembles flaceidus, t. L658, and granulatus,
t. 1757, but is of a more lead-coloured black than either, and
moreover known by the downy whitish covering of its under
side, which is peculiaf. Ehrhart’s name (mouse-skin Lichen)
alluding to this circumstance is very expressive. The shields,
rare in Britain, are scattered over the upper surface, a little
elevated, of a reddish brown more or less dark, with a thin
margin of the substance of the frond.