areolae with an unequally granulated surface, of a dull brownish
gray, sometimes spotted with lead-colour, greenish when
wet; internal substance pale brown or dingy white, with
some green near the surface. We have no British specimen
that exhibits the edge of the patch. Scutellae circular,
smaller than poppy-seed, apparently sessile on the surface
of the crust, but each terminating in reality a granulation
of much smaller diameter than its own. Margin in young
scutellcB somewhat elevated, thickish, more or less crenu-
late ; when older, depressed or obliterated : disk dark reddish
brown, flat or moderately convex, reddish within, and
sometimes leaving an orange-coloured cup when partially
broken out.
This species bears some general resemblance toL.sophodes,
t. 1791, but its real structure, although more minute in all
its parts, is most similar to that of L . aipospila. There is
reason to doubt whether Lichen poliophceus of Wahlenberg,
another native of the shores of Norway, is more than a variety
of L . spodophcea. Its discoverer observes that its crust
imbibes water less freely, and differs by never becoming
green*, and by its somewhat fibrillose whitish edges. In a
specimen of each, from Dr. Wahlenberg himself, an almost
miscroscopic white cotton-like edge is present. In that of
L . poliophcea the crust imbibes water but slowly, and its
hue scarcely changes; but it has even in its dry state a slight
tinge of green : its scutellae are paler and redder, and their
outline is less regularly circular. Lecanora helygea of Acha-
rius, a Swiss Lichen, which is stated to be nearly allied to
L . spodophcea, appears from the description to be a Lecidea.
Indeed some of the apothecia on the authentic specimen of
L . spodophcea above referred to have a somewhat ambiguous
appearance.—W.B.
* In Ach. Meth. Suppl. and Wahl. FI. Lapp.—He qualifies this however
in his FI. Suec., where the expression is “ n x virescit.”