DK, LAUDER LTXDSaY ON AUTIIONIA WELASPEBMELLA. 279 



a Fungus, The old Lichen -gen us Sjiilomaj like Oassicurtia^ con- 

 sists mostly of minute Fungi, often with black spores, which ger- 

 minate readily. Some of them are parasites analogous to the 

 TJredinece of Phaenogams, and are referred by Nylander [Syn. 15, 

 Prodr. 91] to his genus Spilomium [Uredinecs {Fun//i)'\. The old 

 Lichen-genus Lep^aria is at least partly referable to £t/ssus^ L., 

 an equally spurious genus belonging partly to the Fungi and 

 partly to the Algce, Some species of Endocarjpon also prove to 

 be Fungi \ e.g. E. ehirneumy D.C., which is an Endocarpicolous 

 Sphceria [Nyl. Classif. Nouv. 197]. 



The genus Fndococcus, Nyl. ITicJiothecium, Fvv.]*, is athalline, 

 the apothecia (and, where they occur, the spermogones) being 

 parasitic on the thallus or apothecia of various crustaceous Lichens. 

 It resembles, on the one hand, Verrucaria (Lichens), and, on the 

 other, SjyTice^i'ia (Fungi) ; and the only apparent reason for class- 

 ing it with the former instead of the latter is, that its hymenial 

 gelatine gives a red or violet colour with iodine. 



The genus Microthelia^ Korb. [TichotTiecium^ Fw.], [Mudd, 

 Manual, 306] is obviously a heterogeneous and provisional one, 

 demanding revision. Some of its species have a thallus; others 

 are devoid thereof, occurring as parasites on the thallus of higher 

 lichens ; some occur both thalline and athalline ; some are 8-spored, 

 others polyspored. One, at least, is a true Sphceria^ according to 

 Currey, viz. S. ventosaria, mihi (collected in 1858), described as 

 Microthelia ventosicola by Muddf. Others, if not all, of its species 

 would be more properly, I suspect, regarded as Fungi. 



Resembling for the most part the genera Microthelia and Endo- 

 coccus J are the following genera : 



1. Thelidium, Massal. J, the athalline species whereof are para- 

 sitic on the thallus of higher lichens, 



2. Thelenella, Nyl. §., where the hymenial gelatine is unaffected 

 by iodine. 



3. Idmboria, Nyl.j|, where the same gelatine, under the same 

 reagent, becomes blue, or wine-red. . 



The genus Odontotrema, NyL, is referred by Nylander, in his 

 latest work %, to the Lichens, though he admits it belongs, per- 

 haps, more properly to the Fungi. Here the thallus can scarcely 



* Lich. Scand. p. 283 ; Pjrenocarp. p. 63. 



t Manual, p. 307. + Mudd, ibid. p. 298 



§ Pjrenocarp. p. 62. 

 f Lich. Scand. p. 249. 



II Lich. Sc«nd. p. 283, 



^INN. PROC. — BOTATTT, VOL. IX. V 



