9G LICHENES. [ Verrucaria. 



face is rough with a coarse powder. The buds or soredia occur near 

 the edges of the thallus ; they are roundish, usually single, sometimes 

 confluent openings with a white border, and containing a greenish- 

 grey powder, darker than the hue .if the thallus ; they are also 

 sprinkled with a white pruina. Apothecia, when saturated with 

 moisture, just visible to the naked eye ; they are of different sizes, 

 more rugged and irregular towards the centre of the patch ; their um- 

 bilicus is sometimes so wide as to cause them to assume the appear- 

 ance of patellulce. Nucleus pale, transparent, gelatinous when moist, 

 having points and elongated cellules dispersed through its substance, 

 and the black thick perithecium passing under it. In old age the 

 thallus sometimes is raised in serpentine ridges, with dark-brown or 

 blackish sinuses between. The very young thallus has a whitish sur- 

 face. The apothecia of Lecidea confluens are sometimes found on 

 the thallus. 



33. V. epigcea, Ach. Thallus indeterminate, thin, gelatinous 

 when moist, cracked, the fissures with raised edges, of a very 

 pale yellowish-brown ; apothecia with a minute pore, globose, 

 immersed, black. Ach. L. Un. p. 295. Eng. JBot. t. 1681. 



On the ground, near Belfast, Mr. Templeton ; at Killiney, near 

 Dublin. The thallus is nearly tartareous, somewhat raised about the 

 apothecia, and there of a deeper brown. The depression on the sur- 

 face of the apothecia, is the orifice of a short duct, (like the neck of a 

 bottle), to the globular perithecium which passes under the nucleus. 

 The apothecia swell remarkably when moist, and are large though con- 

 cealed in the thallus. Acharius says the apothecia are black within ; 

 but I find the nucleus pale, whitish, semitransparent, and swelling when 

 moistened. 



34. V. obscura, Borr. Mss. Thallus cartilaginous or tarta- 

 reous, black-edged, undulated, olive-brown, smooth, cracked, 

 the areola usually tumid ; apothecia deeply immersed, their tops 

 at length oval, elliptical or linear; often crowded, or closely 

 arranged in slightly curved lines. Borr. Mss. Liche?i obscurus, 

 Eng. Bot. t. 1 752. 



On the barks of old trees ; also on rocks near the shore at Derri- 

 quin, County of Kerry. This species does not come accurately under 

 any described genus, perhaps better under Verrucaria than any other, 

 yet the top of the apothecia sometimes resembles a patellula, and at 

 others a lirella ; but the nucleus, pale and gelatinous when wet, is 

 always deeply immersed in the thallus. 



35. V. circumscripta. Thallus thin, tartareous, whitish-ash 

 coloured, unaltered when wet, pruinose, with minute linear ele- 

 vations towards the edges, at length minutely cracked, with an 

 olive-brown border; apothecia minute, immersed, pruinose, 

 mostly confluent in lines. 



Near Bantry, 3Tiss Hutchins ; on shaded rocks, County of Kerry. 

 The thallus is minutely cracked, principally about the centre ; the 

 border is somewhat silky. Patches seldom exceed one inch in dia- 

 meter, yet several contiguous individuals form a more extended map- 

 like appearance ; the thallus is interiorly of a greenish yellow. This 

 species is closely allied to the preceding, differing by the thallus, whose 



