THE LICHEN FLORA OF THE SANTA CRUZ PENINSULA 2 19 



more than two meters and a breadth of two-thirds of a meter, and is 

 easily our largest North American lichen. 



Many specimens may be found attached by the holdfast from 

 which they have grown, but the chief method of propagation and 

 diffusion is by the tearing and breaking of the thallus and the dis- 

 semination of the fragments by the wind. Of course the distribution 

 is greatest by this method during the rainy season, but it goes on at 

 all times, even during the dryest and calmest weather. 



The oaks are often completely covered with festoons of this lichen 

 so that they present an appearance identical with that of the live 

 oaks of the Gulf States, covered with Tillandsia usneoides. 



6. RAMALINA MENZIESII Tuck. 



Ramalina menziesii Tuck. Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences, Vol. 



1 : p. 204. 1847. 



Ramalina menziesii Tuck. Syn. N. Am. Lich. I: 24. 1882. 

 Ramalina menziesii Herre, Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci. 7: 334. 1906. 

 Ramalina menziesii Cummings and Seymour, Decades of N. Am. 



Lich., no. 93, Berkeley, Calif. 



Thallus originally tufted, rigid, linear, canaliculate; lobes more or 

 less twisted, irregularly branched; puberulent or smooth. With age 

 the plant becomes more or less flaccid and pendulous, the lobes long, 

 dilated and ribbon-like, more or less irregular in outline, the edges 

 occasionally fringed with lobules; surface furrowed or channelled; 

 color sage-green, gray-green, or bright green. 



Apothecia abundant, at first marginal or sub-terminal, later scat- 

 tered; small to large, sub-pedicellate, margin usually incurved; spores 



bilocular, straight or curved, '- /*. 



10 - 14.5 



Habitat trees, shrubs, old fences. A specimen in the Tuck. Herb., 

 collected in Alameda County by H. N. Bolander, is labelled "on the 

 earth. " It is apparently not found in the higher mountains but is 

 exceedingly abundant throughout the plains and foothills. While 

 its habitat is given as " California " by Tuckerman, its exact range 

 is not known. It is recorded by Hasse from southern California, 

 while in the Tuck. Herb, is a specimen collected in Oregon by E. 

 Hall, and labelled by Tuckerman "R. menziesii f. sorediata." Its 



Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., May, 1910. 



