conspicuous ostiole with a short chimney around it. One often sees 

 whitish pits in the thallus which are the remains of old penthecia 

 divested of their involucrella. 



The thallus of V mucosu is quite aggressive and often grows over 

 crustose algae, such as Hildcnhruntia and Lithorhamiiia. It also is 

 commonly found growing over other Vermcanae where the penthe- 

 cia of the overgrown material project through the thallus of I' iimaisci 

 causing a potential source of misidentification. 



Spores of V mucosa are not distinctive m either shape or size, San- 

 tesson (1939) reported the size of spores to be highly vanable. 7-15 

 X 4-8/im. 



Pycnidia are quite common on V' iimcosci thalli. They appear as 

 slits ringed with brown and occur widely scattered or in clusters. It 

 is not uncommon to find mounds made up of aggregated pycnidia. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION: Sweden. Norway. Finland, Ice- 

 land. Faroe Islands. Germany. Ireland. France (Santesson 1939). 

 England (Ferry and Sheard 1969). Wales (Fletcher 1973a). Green- 

 land. Sibena. Fuegia. Aukland Islands. Campbell Island. New 

 Zealand (Lamb 1953). Bntish Columbia (Brodo MSC). 



NORTHEASTERN AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION: MASSA- 

 CHUSETTS: Es.se.\ Co.. Plymouth Co. NEW HAMPSHIRE: 

 Rockingham Co. MAINE: Cumberland Co. . Sagadahoc Co. . Han- 

 cock Co., Lincoln. Co. (MemI MSC). Washington Co. NOVA 

 SCOTIA: Colchester Co.. Cumberland Co.. Yarmouth Co.. Digby 

 Co.. Sheiburne Co., Halifax Co., Victona Co.. Cape Breton Co. 

 NEWFOUNDLAND: Northern Peninsula Section. East Coast 

 Section. Avalon Section. 



Vcnucana .siruiiuUi is most noted for the strikingly large carbo- 

 naceous structures termed juga by Santesson ( 1939). The juga rise 

 above the thallus and tend to be broad and often branched. They 

 commonly encompass a perithecium. Near the edge of the thallus 

 they often radiate out from the center, marking the leading edge of 

 thallus lobes. They are different from the ridges of I' cnchsenii and 

 V. ditmarsica. being more like flattened plateaus and buttes than 

 narrow ridges. 



The thallus is normally a bnght green when fresh but darkens in 

 more intense sunlight. It fades quickly in the shade. In the herbar- 

 ium the thallus soon becomes colorless and scarcely visible, a con- 

 dition causing early workers to think that the juga were the entire 

 thallus (Santes.son 1939). The thallus is continuous but often shows 

 necral cracks upon drying. 



The penthecia are often amorphous, coalescing v\ith juga or 

 appeanng as spheres frequently with flattened tops. The perithecia 

 often are cracked or dissected and usually a shiny black. 



In the shade inodification the perithecia become more nearly 

 spherical or may be elongated vertically. Juga become reduced, 

 causing the shade modification of V. sihatula to resemble V. ditmar- 

 sica. However, even in the shade modification, juga usually retain 

 their flatness and are reduced in size, but still are broad by compari- 

 son w ith other ridged species. Perithecium diameters are in the gen- 

 eral range of 0.05-0.3 mm. Zschucke ( 1934) listed the spore range 

 as 8-12 X 4-5;im and Enchsen ( 1957) as 8-1 1 x 4-5^m. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION: Sweden. Norway. Denmark. Ice- 

 land, Ireland. France. Spain. Portugal (Santesson 1939). Wales 

 (Fletcher 1973a), Scotland (Brodo MSC). England (James MSC). 



Verntcaria silicicola Fink in Hednck. Mycologia 25(4):305. 1933. 



DESCRIPTION: Thallus brownish, continuous to patchy, not 

 areolate. Perithecia shallow domes to hemispherical. 0. 15-0.4 mm 

 broad; excipulum hyaline to dark below. Spores hyaline. 18-22 x 

 8-9,(111. 



The author's knowledge of this species is limited to the examina- 

 tion of available herbanum specimens collected and known only 

 from Long Island. N.Y. The material seen resembled V microspora 

 to a considerable degree. The thallus was brownish and patchy. The 

 penthecia. for the most part, were shallow domes. Hednck (1933) 

 gave 0. 15-0.4 mm as the diameter of penthecia and those seen by 

 the author fell within this range. The salient charactenstic of this 

 species is the spore size, listed by Hedrick (1933) as 19-22 x 8- 

 9^m. The author was unable to find spores but Brodo (1968) 

 reported the range as 16-25 x 6-l0,(iii. 



NORTHEASTERN AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION: NEW- 

 YORK: Suffolk Co. (Latham MSC), (Brodo MSC). 



Vernicana siriatida Wahlenb. in Ach. Suppl. Meth. Lich. 23. 

 1803. 



DESCRIPTION: Thallus entire, light to dark green usually 

 opaque w hen dry. more translucent when wet. containing numerous 

 black, rather broad ndges often branched, ridges especially com- 

 mon at thallus margins. Perithecia hemispherical to globular, often 

 irregular, flattened and/or dissected, shiny. 0.07-0.3 mm diameter, 

 excipulum hyaline to entirely dark below. Spores ovoid, may be 

 pointed at one end. 8-10 x 4-6fim. 



NORTHEASTERN AMERICAN DISTRIBUTION: MASSA- 

 CHUSETTS: Essex Co.. Plymouth Co. RHODE ISLAND: New- 

 port Co. NEW HAMPSHIRE: Rockingham Co. MAINE: 

 Cumberiand Co.. Hancock Co. NOVA SCOTIA: Yarmouth Co.. 

 Digby Co.. Sheiburne Co.. Halifax Co.. Victona Co. NEW- 

 FOUNDLAND: West Coast Section, Northern Peninsula Section. 

 East Coast Section. Avalon Section. NEW BRUNSWICK: Grand 

 Manan (W.R.Taylor MICH). 



Genus Xanthoria 



Xamhona candclanu (L.) Th. Fr. Gen. Heterolich. Europ. 61. 

 1861. Lichen candelahus L. Sp. PI. 1 141. 1753. 



DESCRIPTION: Thallus foliose. light gold, diffuse or forming 

 rosettes, KOH + purple. Lobes small (0.2-0.5 mm broad) plane to 

 convex, lacerated, sorediate. soredia mostly apical, lobes tend to 

 nse off substrate. Apothecia ca. 2 mm broad with thalline margin. 

 Spores eight perascus. polanlocular. 9-13 x 4-6/(m. 



This species supert'icially resembles members of the genus Cande- 

 laria for which it is named but differs in reaction to KOH and spore 

 type. The Candelariae are KOH- and the spores are not polanlocular 

 There is also a resemblance between Xanthoria candelaria and X. 

 fallax when the latter displays lobe widths at the narrow end of the 

 range for that species. However, in such a case the location of soredia 

 will distinguish them. In X. candelaria the soredia are apical or lami- 

 nal as opposed to the labrose mode in X. fallax. 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION: Alaska (Krog 1968). South 

 Dakota (Wetmore 1967). Nevada (Imshaug 1957). Washington 

 (Howard 1950). Utah (Wetmore MSC). California (Newcomb 



21 



