VERRUCARIE^. 33 



characters of this genus, but if examined in an old or 

 mature state, the generic characters become fully deve- 

 loped. For then the stellato-radiant sections of the thal- 

 lodal wart are drawn open, and the thallodal orifice pro- 

 portionately enlarged, within which is seen the veiled 

 brown disk of the nucleus, encompassed by the lacerated 

 remains of the upper portion of the receptacle. In this 

 species the nucleus is not depressed, as in the preceding, 

 but entirely fills the receptacle. The structure is still 

 more clearly seen by dissecting out the nucleus and 

 receptacle from the thallodal wart, from which it easily 

 separates entire. It will be found to be in shape not 

 very unlike a minute vertebral joint, (Plate XII. C.) 

 cylindrical, flattened at the top and base, enveloped in a 

 thin but very distinct, yellow, semi-opaque membrane {b), 

 thickened towards the base (c), and bearing at the 

 summit several darker-brown, sub-cartilaginous, irregu- 

 larly-formed, erect processes {a), the lacerated divisions 

 of the once- closed receptacle, which surround the now 

 exposed disk. (See Plate XII.) 



The sporidia keep this quite distinct from Gyaleda 

 cupulariSy Schaer. {Lecidea marmorea^ Ach.) and several 

 other allied plants, represented in Plates XIII. XIV. 

 XV. fig. I. 



Tribe III. VERRUCARIEJE, Fries, 



Apothecium rounded ; proper receptacle closed, {peri- 

 thecium,) perforated by a contiguous pore {ostiolum); 

 nucleus gelatinous, sub-hyaline, diflfluent ; thallus crus- 

 taceous.* 



* " I caunot be certain, but I imagine that Fries uses * ostiolum contiguunC 

 for the opening in tlie peritheciura itself, in Verrucariea?, in opposition to 

 * ostiolum disa-etum,' the opening distinct from the perithecium, in Endo- 

 carpeje, viz., in the superimposed black mass in Sao:edia and Chiodecton, and 

 in the thallus itself in Endocarpon, Pertusaria, and Thelotrema. 



"Again, he distinguishes the nucleus as 'deUquesceni in the former tribe, 



3 



