138 OMPHALARIA. 



gether finally into a broken crust; pale-bluish- or sage-green ; 

 apothecia very small, lecanoroid, innate, flattish ; the disk ru- 

 fous; the paler margin persistent. Spores ellipsoid, simple, decel- 

 erate, ^ mic. ; the paraphyses somewhat distinct. Synalissa, 



Obs. Lich. I. supra c. 



Calcareous rocks, Texas (Wright], Tuckerman 1. c. 1877. 



Gonimia mostly solitary or in twos, but occurring also in chains 

 of fours and sixes ; 10-17 mic. in the longest diameter. Frag- 

 ments from Bourbon County, Kansas (Hall], also calcareous, 

 agrees, so far as they go, very well with this, except in their 

 blackish colour, bringing them near to Porocyphus areolatus, 

 Koerb. ; which is similar in fact in the spores and paraphyses, 

 and the gonimia. From this last P. viridi-rufa is distinguisha- 

 ble, with whatever ultimate rank, by the colours, and the differ- 

 ent matrix. Apothecia, as seen, O mra -, 3 to O mm -, 4 thick. 



XXVI. OMPHALARIA, Dur. & Mont. 



Apothecia very small, sub-globose; more or less immersed 

 in the thallus, or superficial ; rarely explicate and scutellae- 

 form. Spores ellipsoid, simple, decolorate. Spermatia el- 

 lipsoid, or now (n. 2, 3) filiform and bowed; on simple 

 sterigmas. Thallus fruticulose, or, more commonly, foliace- 

 ous, attached to the substrate at only one point ; the go- 

 nimia disposed in clusters, or rarely linked together in 

 necklace -like chains, interspersed among anastomosing 

 hyphae in a homogeneous pulp. 



Synalissa, Fr. S. 0. V. p. 297 (1824) was founded on the 

 type of the first section of Omphalaria as here understood ; but 

 placed with SphaBriaceous Fungi. It was long before Fries 

 again reviewed the plant, and restored it to its proper affinity, 

 but he took occasion at the same time (Summ. Veg. Scand. p. 

 563, 1849) to associate with it generically Endocarpon phylliscum, 

 Wahl., which makes here the second section of the present genus. 

 Before this, however, Montagne had distinguished (Alger. 1846) 

 our third section (to which he afterwards referred also our 

 second) as Omphalaria; and the group thus established has 

 acquired, whether as Omphalariei or Omphalaria, emend., of 

 authors, an extent, and has received an amount of illustration 

 which makes any attempt at superseding its well-known name 

 by the older one impracticable. 



