NOVEMBEK. 525 



undistinguishable from the rock itself, over which it 

 widely spreads, and it would therefore almost escape 

 notice but for its singular apothecia, which, though 

 hard, in summer, as the stone they are upon, present 

 in shape and colour a striking similitude to minute 

 mushrooms, or agarici. 



Of Lecidea, with its shield-like apothecia, Sir J. W. 

 HOO&EB enumerates 68 species in his British Flora, 

 and we may refer to two in exemplification of it. 

 The JJ. parasema, or common black-shielded Lecidea, 

 abundant on the bark of trees, and the pretty L. ulmi- 

 cola, whose crowded orange-coloured shields have a 

 most elegant aspect wherever they present themselves. 

 The Map Lecidea (L. geographical) , also merits notice 

 as a very remarkable denizen of granitic or trap rocks 

 in mountainous and sub-alpine countries, where it 

 spreads its bright yellow thallus in a very conspicuous 

 manner, cracked with black lines that seem to repre- 

 sent the courses of rivers, and their hundred tribu- 

 taries, while the black apothecia mark to the eye of 

 fancy the position of towns or villages. On the slate 

 rocks of Cumberland beautiful specimens may be easily 

 detached, but in general it is not easy to unchain this 

 vegetable Prometheus, unless, indeed, the explorator 

 feels inclined to carry away rock and all from its high 

 position ! The summits of the Malvern hills,* in 

 "Worcestershire, pleasingly display the Map Lecidea 

 in many places, and in the autumnal season, while 

 exploring those romantic heights, the snow wreath or 



* In my Botany of the Malvern Hills, (Published by Lamb, Malvern?) 

 I have catalogued 248 distinct Lichens as growing upon these beautiful 

 ridges so often bathed by the mist and rain-cloud, and in hot summers so 

 burnt up that few of the Phanerogamous tribes can then flourish there, 

 except the hardy Gorse, dry Verbascum, and succulent Cotyledon and 

 Sedum. 



