SPHL.EROPHORUS.] SPHJEROPHOREI. 105 



meter. Hook. Fl. Scot. ii. p. 67 ; Gray, Nat. Arr. i. p. 487 ; Leight. 

 Br. Angi. Lich. 7, t. i. f. 1 ; Lich. Fl. p. 47, ed. 3, p. 48; Mudd, 

 Man. p. 264, t. v. f. 109 ; Cromb. Lich. Brit. p. I5.8p7uBrop7ioron 

 coralloides o. laamm Sra. Eng. El. v. p. 232. Lichen globiferus Lightf. 

 Fl. Scot, ii. p. 887 ; Eng. Bot. t. 115 ; With. Arr. ed. 3, iv. p. 40. 

 Lichen globosus Huds. El. Angl. i. p. 460. Coralloides cupressiforme 

 capitulis ylobosis Dill. Muse. p. 117, t. 17. f. 35. Liclienoides non 

 tubulosum ramosissimum,fruticuli specie cinereo-fuscum Dill, in Ray, 

 Syn. ed. 3, 65. 9. Lichen globiferus Linn. Mant. (1767) p. 133 is 

 a prior name, but being merely the Latin equivalent of Sphceropliorus 

 cannot be retained, nor the still older name Liclien globosus Huds. 

 Brit. Exs.: Mudd, n. 253; Leight. n. 316; Bohl. n. 5. 



Notwithstanding the specific name, this plant is not nearly so " coral- 

 linoid " as the preceding, from which it is distinguished by the rounded 

 and laxly branched thallus, the shorter branches, and the persistent sub- 

 globose receptacle of the apothecia. It occurs in extensive patches, 

 varying in colour from glaucous in shady to brownish or even reddish in 

 exposed habitats, the branches being somewhat shining in the upper portion, 

 and the larger ones more or less indistinctly articulate. The apothecia 

 are chiefly on the main branches, and remain closed for a considerable 

 time. Our figure (p. 103) illustiates their structure : a is a section of the 

 thalline receptacle with an apothecium. In the receptacle is an external 

 pale stratum the cortex. In the apothecium there is (1) the columellar 

 brown kypvthecium, winch is blackish above ; (2) a bluish-white stratum, 

 which is the hymeitium ; and (3) a very thick external black stratum, 

 which is the mazcediwn. The spermogones are terminal either on the 

 sterile branches or on the hbrilte, and are similar to those of S. com- 

 pressus, though more frequent. 



Hab. On rocks and boulders, rarely on the mossy roots of trees, from 

 maritime to alpine regior.s. Ut'str. General and common in the hilly and 

 mountainous tracts of Great Britain and Ireland, rarer in the Channel 

 Islands. B. M. : Islands of Jersey and Guernsey. Tunbridge Wells, 

 Kent ; Ardingly, Sussex ; Vixen Tor, Lustleigh Cleeve, and Hay Tor, 

 Dartmoor, Devonshire ; between Arthur's bed and Wring Cheese, near 

 Penzance, and Ilelminton, Cornwall ; Buckstcne, near Monmouth ; Chain- 

 wood Forest, Leicestershire ; Malvern Hills, Worcestershire ; Cromford 

 Moor, near M atlock, Derbyshire ; Caer Caradoc and Pentregaer, Cswestry, 

 Salop ; Llanberis and Conway Falls, Carnarvonshire ; Cader Idris. Cwm 

 Bychan, and Aberdovey, Merionethshire; Island of Anglesea ; Kildale 

 Moor, Cleveland, Yorkshire ; Teesdale and Eglestone, Durham ; Kent- 

 mere, Westmoreland ; the Cheviots, Northumberland. New Galloway, 

 Kirkcudbrightshire; Pentland Hills and Dalmahoy Hill, near Edin- 

 burgh ; Inverary and Loch Creran, Argyleshire ; the Trossachs, Craig Cal- 

 liach, Ben Law ers, Falls of Bruar, and near Loch Ericht, Perthshire; 

 l\eeky Linn and Clova, Forfai>hire ; hills at Nigg, Kir.cardiue^hire ; 

 Craig Coinnoch and Lochnagar, Braemar, Aberdeenshii e ; Glen Nevis, 

 Inverness-shire; near Forres, Elginshire; near Lairg, Sutherlandshire. 

 Devis Mt., co. Antrim ; Killarney, co. Kerry ; Conuemara, co. Galway. 



Form congestns Lamy, Bull. Soc. Bot, Fr. xxv. (1878) p. 349. 

 Thallus small, firm, the branches short, erect, densely aggregate. 

 Cromb. Grevillca, xv. p. 15. 



