ENDOCARPE.E. 21 



granules. When in a young state, and still enclosed 

 within the ascus, they are pale and nearly colourless, and 

 from mutual pressure assume somewhat of a fusiform 

 shape. The external appearance of the apex of the peri- 

 thecium and its section assimilate with EndocarpoUy 

 whilst the character of the thallus, though partaking 

 largely of that of Endocarpon, approaches, in its warty 

 appearance and thick tartareous structure, that of Fer- 

 tusaria. 



Genus 2. Sagedia, Fries, 



Apothecium enclosed within the thallus, globose ; 

 nucleus gelatinous, deliquescing; receptacle membrana- 

 ceous, thin, at length becoming black ; ostiolum distinct, 

 attenuated into a slender neck, dilated at the apex, per- 

 forated. Thallus horizontal, subcrustaceous. 



This appears to be a genus framed to receive certain 

 anomalous and differing plants, which cannot, perhaps, 

 be correctly included either in Endocarpon or Verrucaria, 

 though partaking, in many particulars, of the character 

 and structure of each, and, with the last section, as here 

 arranged, of Endocarpon, is apparently one of those links 

 or gradations by which nature connects those genera. 



With Endocarpon it corresponds, in the apothecia en- 

 closed within the thallus and the gelatinous nucleus, but 

 differs in the nature of the thallus, in the black receptacle, 

 attenuated into a slender neck with a dilated perforated 

 summit. 



With Verrucaria it corresponds in the nature of the 

 thallus, but differs in the absence of a true carbonaceous 

 perithecium, the nucleus entirely enclosed in the thallus, 

 and the ostiolum attenuated into a neck with a dilated 

 apex. The latter being sub-carbonaceous, may easily be 

 mistaken for a superficial perithecium. 



From the " degenerate Parmeliae," as Fries considers 

 Endocarpon smaraf/didiim, and its varieties (as associated 

 in this w^ork) to be, and perhaps correctly, it differs in 

 the nature of the nucleus and the perforated ostiolum, 



