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CRYPTOGAMIA Algos.
Gen. Char. F ru c tific a tio n scarcely perceptible, in a
membranous jelly-like substance.
Spec. Char. Sessile, gelatinous, roundish, undulated,
blackish, beset with mammillary white-headed
processes on the upper side.
Syn. Tremella arborea. Huds. 563. With. v. 4. 78.
Hull. 309. R e lh .W l. Sibth. 390. Abbot. 271.
T. glandulosa. Full. t. 4 2 0 . / . 1 .
T. arborea nigricans, minus pinguis et fugax.
Dill. Muse. 54. t. 10. f . 15.
C om m o n upon fallen trees and dead sticks in the winter
months; Bulliard says, most frequently on the Alder. It consists
of roundish unequal masses, rarely elevated on any thing
like a stalk; lobed above; most corrugated beneath. The substance
is thickish and gelatinous; the colour pale and transparent
at first, but soon changing to brown and almost black.
The upper surface bears scattered upright short prominences,
each with a black cylindrical base, and a convex white head,
in which one would presume the fructification to be lodged.
Dillenius says it is called, in Herefordshire, Witches’ butter
because, when thrown into the fire, it is believed to be efficacious
against witchcraft.
The plant figured in Jacq. Coll. v. 3. t. 12. f. 2, greenish
and membranous in its appearance, must surely be different
from this; nor can we, even doubtingly, refer ours to the family
of Lichens, as Acharius has done, Prod. 139. Meth. 246.