SPH^ROPHORE^. 



owing to the shrinking of the thallus, there being a greater 

 space in the interior of the apothecium than in o. laxum. 

 Sporidia 8 in eacli ascus, oblong, with a hyaUne margin, 

 of a bright and deep indigo-blue. 



2. S. coMPREssuM, Ach. Apothecia turned towards one 

 side, flattened ; sporidia round. Plate L fig. 3. 



Lichen fragilis, Huds. Fl. Angl. 558. (1798.) 



Sm. E. Bot. 114. 



Ach. Prod. 211. 



SPH.ER0PI10K0N COMPRESSUM, AcL Meth. 135. (1803) ; L. Univ. 580. 



t. 12. f. 6. 



Turn, and Borr. Licli. Brit. 115. 



Fries, L. Reform. 404. 



Hook. Br. Fl. ii. 232. 



Sand-rocks near Tunbridge Wells ! Mr. Borrer. 



The thallus is pale, of a peculiar frosted, rigid, coralline 

 aspect, compressed ; the ultimate branches lobed or ar- 

 ticulated, terminating in a rounded or oblong swollen 

 apex, thus differing from S, coralloides and its variety. 



The apothecia being turned towards one side and not 

 erect affords a singular peculiarity, not to mention their 

 depressed disk-like shape when old. Sporidia 8 in each 

 ascus, round with a hyaline margin, black. I cannot 

 satisfy myself as to the cause of the fibrillose appearance 

 of the disciform nucleus, but believe it to arise from the 

 asci becomhig loosened one from another at their outer 

 extremity. In this species the torus is single ; in coral- 

 hides double. 



