much lobed, notched, and crenate, and usually paler at the
edges. Old specimens are sometimes almost black, bcu-
tellse numerous, mostly crowded, sessile, orbicular at first,
but often in a more advanced stage variously lobed and
flexuose, appearing as if formed, and sometimes perhaps
actually formed, of several confluent individuals: their disk
flat or slightly convex, varying from yellowish brown to
chestnut or a darker hue; redder and tumid when wet:
their margin of the same substance and hue as the thallus,
indexed, everywhere plicate, notched or crenulate, and,
except in very young scutellae, narrow and but little raised
above the edges of the disk. r . ,
Possessing a specimen from Dickson of his Lichen pezizoides,
and seeing no sufficient reason to doubt the identity
of Weber’s plant, we prefer this as the older name. Indeed
it is bv no means certain what Swartz intended by
his Lichen brunneus, since he inserts L . pezizoides ot Weber
as distinct, immediately before his notice of L. brunneus as
a new species, and a specimen of the latter from himself,
in the Smithian herbarium (as well as an authentic specimen
in the same collection of L . multiform of Ehrhart),
appears rather to belong to L . hypnorum of Dickson, with
Which however Swartz’s character* does not well agree.
The less confluent state of our Lichen (fig. »•) is liable
to be mistaken for Lecanora hypnorum, but the scales ot the
thallus in that species are individually larger, rounder, and
more simple, being scarcely lobed ; and its more elevated,
deeply-cupped, and Parmelia-like scutellae, afford another
and a satisfactory distinction. This is unfortunately not expressed
in Engl. Lot. t.740, which may possibly even have been
drawn from a specimen o f i . pezizoides.— Lecanora carnosa
t. 1684, and Lecidea triplopliyllak {Lichen microphyllus,)
t 2128 besides the differences in their apothecia, are distinguishable
by their flatter scales with ascending edges; and
the latter species additionally by the grey granulations that
usually border the scales, and often convert the whole central
part of the patch into a thick powder-like mass; L .
pezizoides producing no such granulations. The black fibrous
substratum also of L . triptophylla is usually very copious
and conspicuous. Fries attributes a fibrous substra-
. “ L. crustaceus, fuscus, scutellis planis rufis.” His further description
is : Crusta tenuis viridi-fusca. Scutellae jumores yiridescentes, sta te
1? f e a W B K r a n ■ ■ ■ ■ der but probably iistinct from the original L . microphyllus of Swartz, although
Acharius unites the two in his Synopsis.
turn to L. pezizoides; but, if present, it is very inconsiderable,
and we have not satisfied ourselves that the nearly
similar appearance in some of our specimens is any thing
but the decayed surface of the subjacent moss.
Lecanora pezizoides and Lecidea coronata have been so
much confounded, that some difficulty attends the distribution
of the synonyms. Lichen brunneus, Engl. Bot.t. 1246, represents
the Lecidea, but not very satisfactorily, the accessory
nature of the thallodal margin to the patellula not
being well expressed. In the description Smith seems to
have had the Lecanora in view, as well as in the Spec. char.
from which that of Lecidea coronata in Brit. FI. is professedly
modelled; and L . coronata of Taylor, in Mackay s
FI. Hibern.pt. 2.p. 127, belongs, in part at least, to Lecanora
pezizoides.
We refer the following synonyms, in chronological order,
to
L ecidea coronata.
Psora coronata, Hoffm. PI. L,ich, v. 3. fasc. 2. 3. t. 56.
f . 1. (bad.)
Lichen coronatus. Ach. Prod. 75.
Lichen granulosus. Dicks. Crypt, fasc. 4. 23*.
Parmelia brunnea car. coronata. Ach. Meth. 186.
Lichen brunneus. Engl. Bot.t. 1246. (not good.)
Lecanora brunnea car. coronata. Ach. Lich. Univ. 419.
Syn. 194.
Parmelia triptophylla, a.b. Fries, Lich. Eur. Reform. 91.
Lecidea coronata. Hook. Brit. FI. v. 2. 182. /3. Hook.
Brit. FI- l. c.
Lichen escharoides. Engl. Bot.t. 1247. {excl. syn. Ach.)
Fries regards as belonging to the same species with this
plant, Lecidea triptophylla, Collema nigrum, and Collema
velutinum of Acharius.
The patellulae of L . coronata frequently acquire a spurious
margin from the granules of the thallus, among which
they are often partially immersed ; but examination proves
it different from the genuine thallodal margin in Lecanora
pezizoides. The bluer hue of the thallus, which forms wide
continuous patches, and its looser and more powder-like
appearance, from the minuteness of the component scales
or granules, further distinguish it. An inconsiderable substratum
of bluish-black fibres is discoverable, especially
* Acharius is probably correct in referring Verrucaria granulosa Hoffm.
to the same species as Lichen quadricolor Dicks. The figure, PL Lich. t. 30.
ƒ . 3. is had for either species