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L I C H E N glomuliferus.
Ball-bearing Lichen.
C R T p T O G A M I A Alga.
Gen. Char. Male, fcattered warts.
Female, fmooth fhields or tubercles, in which the
feeds are imbedded.
Sp e c . Ch a r . Foliaceous, creeping, even and glaucous
above, bearing dark-green, branched, tufted ex-
crefcences. Shields tawny.
Syn. Lichen glomuliferus. Lightf. Scot. 853.
L. laciniatus. Had/. FI. An. 544. With. Bot. Arr.
V. 3. 198.
Lichenoides fubglaucum cumatile, foliis tenacibus,
eleganter Iaciniatis. D ill. Mufc. 197. t. 16. f . 99.
T H I S is by far the largeft and broadeft Lichen known, often
fneafuring two or three feet in diameter, and therefore Scopoli’s
original name amplijjimus ought not to have been changed; but
Mr. Lightfoot’s is fo apt, and has been fo generally adopted by
practical botanifts, we retain it in preference to that given by
Mr. Hudfon, laciniatus, which is not expreflive nor difcriminative
at all.
Lichen glomuliferus is found on the trunks of trees in old
mountainous woods in England, Scotland, and Wales, very
abundantly in Colonel Johnes’s woods at Hafod, where ours
was gathered. Its fronds fpread loofely over the bark, a little
imbricated, of a pale glaucous green above when moift, whitilh
grey when dry, very fmooth, fcarcely ever rugged; beneath
downy, light reddilh brown, the margin white. They are elegantly
lobed and fdalloped, the lobes being all round, and the
little finufes between them often quite circular. The fhields
are numerous, and by no means very rarely produced, not large,
& little elevated, their margin fmooth, of the colour and fub-
ftance of the frond, out of which indeed it is formed bv the
gradual elevation and increafe of the fhield from a fmall im-
merfed point; the difk is concave, of a brownifh orange-colour,
darker when dry. Befides thefe fhields remarkable tufts
pr balls, of a dark-green foft branchy fubftance, with a folid
white ftem, arife out of the frond. Thefe are more frequent
than the fhields, found on the fame individual plants, and dif-
tinguifh the fpecies, being fuppofed to have a fhare in the fructification.
We will not add any new conje£tures to thofe to be
found in Withering and Lightfoot, in both which authors this
curious plant is well defcribed,
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