296 Miscellaneous, 



European mosses coincide. But Mr. Wilson, whose observations on 

 this tribe are always as original as acute, has long since taught Dr. 

 Taylor that the scabrous state of the pedicel in this species is liable 

 to great variation ; insomuch that he seems disposed to doubt if 

 Hypnum vagans of Hooker in Drummond's * Musci Americani,' sepa- 

 rated principally on account of the smoothness of its fruit-stalks, be 

 really distinct from Hypnum rutahulum (L.). 



Among the very few lichens sent by Dr. Watson is a species of 

 Cenomyce which may be considered new, and called Cenomycefoliacea. 

 Its specific character may be thus given : — 



** Podetia two inches high, loosely csespitose, dichotomously branched, 

 the ultimate branches subulate and tipped with brown ; the buds 

 in flattened, granular, pale green elevations of the cuticle, soon ex- 

 panding into flat lobes which are subpinnately branched and cre- 

 nate, pale glaucous above, snow-white beneath, unaltered by moist- 

 ure. There were no apothecia present." 



The generic name is that of Acharius, which perhaps should not 

 be abandoned but upon the clearest necessity. The modern subdi- 

 vision of this genus into Cladonia and Scyphophorus appears attended 

 with no advantage, while the species of these two tribes are, by the 

 confession of the adopters themselves, joined by links that appear in- 

 separable from either set. Indeed on this question the present plant 

 is quite in point, having all the habit of Cenomyce sparassa (Ach.), 

 (Scyphophorus of Fee and of DeCandolle), with the attenuated and 

 subulate branches of Cladonia (of the same authors). 



The buds of lichens have not received the consideration from bo- 

 tanists which their importance merits. 



Hitherto the characters have been drawn from the thallus or from 

 the apothecia alone ; but the buds by which, for the most part, these 

 plants are multiplied, and which, if watched during development, pre- 

 sent most remarkable features, should be hailed as a new and wel- 

 come element for specific distinctions. 



In Cenomyce sparassa (Ach.) the buds originate in coarse white 

 granules, thickly set and rising at once above the surface of the po- 

 detia ; in our plant they are flat, scarcely eminent above the cuticle 

 of the podetia, pale glaucous green from the beginning, and not so 

 densely crowded, nor do they expand into lobes so linear. Another 

 character may be taken from the branches of the podetia, which in the 

 former are nearly parallel and of equal thickness except at the very 

 summit, while in Cenomyce foliacea they are more gradually acumi- 

 nated and divaricated above. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



GRIFFITHSIA SIMPLICIFILUM, AGARDH. 



This species of Alga, which has not been noticed as occurring on 

 any part of the coast of Great Britain, was found plentifully by Mr. 

 R. Ball and myself at Freshwater bay, in the Isle of Wight, on the 

 7th of August 1841. The species has a place in the British cata- 



