178 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



forms, the podetia of this are short and stout, the whole lei)gth scarcely 

 exceeding, in the specimens, thrice that of the longest ajwthecia. Spores 

 of the species, 0,016-23™™- long and 0,007-8"™- thick. — All the known 

 forms of PUophorus fall readily under one species ; there are no satis- 

 factory characters to distinguish them. But it is more difficult to follow 

 Dr. Th. Fries in his recent reference hither {Lich. Scand. p. 55) of 

 one of the two states of his Stereocaidon cereolinum, Monog. Stereoc. 

 p. 40, which is otherwise universally recognized as a Stereocaulon ; 

 and, as he says, is only with extreme difficulty (" cegerrirne,'^ Lich. 

 Scand. 1. c.) distinguishahle from the other form. The "good" figure 

 of Ach. Meth., of the fertile condition of S. cereolus, is not cited in this 

 reference of the plant to PUophorus. It is surprising, if Acharius 

 really had PUophorus fibula in fruit, before him, when he described his 

 Stereoc. cereolus, that he should not at once have recognized the resem- 

 blance of the former to his Cladonia acicularis. Such mistake could 

 hardly occur here, where the PUophorus is scarcely known but as 

 fertile, and the somewhat similar, commonly sterile, often subsimple 

 lichen, with powdery heads, is most readily and often certainly refer- 

 able to the Stereocaulon.* 



BiATORA CAULOPHYLLA, sp. nov. : tliallo 6 lobulis stlpitiformi- 

 erectis compressis sursum dilatatis lobatisque griseo-virescentibus in 

 crustam plicatam subinde albo-fai-inosam stipatis ; apotheciis mediocri- 

 bus (dein et 2 mm. latis) margine obtuso mox livescenti-nigro discum 

 planum rufo-fuscum uigrumque cingente. Sporje octonas, ovoideo-ellip- 

 soideae, simplices, incolores, longit. 0,007-13™™-, crassit. 0,004-G™™-, para- 

 physibus conglutinatis. — On rocks, mountains of California, Z)/-. J5c»/an- 

 der. The erect lobes are at length 5-7 mm. long, and, in their widest 

 portions, 2-3 mm. wide. This is a pronounced exhibition in the squa- 

 mulose BiatortB of the extraordinary modification of thallus in Lecidea 

 vesicular is (llotfni.), Ach., and L. coiiglomerata, Ach. As in Lecanora 

 thamnoplaca, Tuckerm. {Gen. Lich. jj. 113) the stipitate lobes of the 

 lichen before us are comparable, in fact, with those of L. 7'iibina, v. 

 complicata (Anz. Lich. Ital. p. 158), the type of which is an almost 

 foliaceous, and in every way distinguished representative of the crusta- 

 ceous thallus. And, as with the LecidecB just named, there is no species 

 to which our Biatora should be referable as a sub-caulescent over- 

 growth. But this is scarcely as clear in the case of somt^ other stipitate- 

 lobate lichens : L. thamnina, noticed in Gen. Lich. p. 1 20, being probably 

 inseparable from luxuriant Californian conditions of L. cerviua b. squa- 



* In t])e above cited Gen. Lick. p. 146, note, the spores of the f. robuslus 

 should be said to be 0,016-23°'"- long. 



