NEW BRITISH: CRYPTOGAMIA. 307 
_ burst open with a-loud report, scattering the seeds, and, at the same 
time, each valve contracting and curling round in opposite directions. 
So great is this power of contraction, that if the pods be bound round 
with strong wire at the distance even of two or three inches apart, it 
frequently bursts between its bands as if overloaded inside, but 
in all cases the membranous lining of the pod remains uninjured. 
This peculiar habit of contraction was first brought to my- notice 
as the pods were lying amongst other specimens of fruits, seeds, ete., 
Which had been recently brought from a cold room into a warm one, by 
&motion at intervals amongst the whole collection.: Upon examina- 
tion, I found that the apparent vitality was in the pods of the Penta- 
clethra, the valves of which were gradually rolling themselves into a 
much smaller compass, of course upsetting the other things by their 
movements, 
. The seeds, besides yielding the oil alluded to, are collected at the 
i . Seasons of their falling, and eaten as food by the natives of Fernando 
(0 Po—BHon the Technologist, vol. iii. p. 155, and vol. iv. p. 32. - 
FU 
NEW BRITISH CRYPTOGAMIA. 
"The descriptions of the subjoined new species of Lichens, Mosses, 
find Liverworts are extracted from publications which are not likely to 
be extensively in the hands of botanists. 
—. X. Brarorrya (P) nanopurtta, Hardy. Thallus effuse, thin, wees 
What sealy, the scales narrow elongate, scattered, or loosely gathered into 
® minutely rimulose crust; testaceo-cinereous, or greyish-white; apo- 
‘thecia hirsute, not very numerous, scattered, plano-convex, never 
globose, flattened when moistened, finely rugulose, margined or im- 
: ate, sometimes sitting on a scale, black, but more or less purple 
When moistened. The apothecia somewhat resemble those of Lecidia 
_ Pisco-Fubens, Ny], (specimens of which I have from the Rev. T. Salwey), 
ù their external appearance, but these are smooth, better margined, 
sani of a deeper purple when wet. 
1 i 790. Among shady greywacke rocks on the seacoast at Swallow 
: Graig, near Sicear Point, Berwickshire. diss 
a 3.  BIATORINA (2) Lirroraris, Hardy. Thallus effuse, thin, mixed 
Wi the hypothallus (2), tartareous, mouldering, rugulose, of : darker 
x 
] 
