PYCNIDES OF CRUSTACEOUS LICHENS. 259 
cellifera of authors *. They are small, round or conoid, white-pruinose conceptacles, 
studded over the thallus like sago-grains. 
Specimen 9. On trunks of firs, Mount Gurnigel: Scher. Exs. No. 534, sub L. leuco- 
cephala, var. patelliformis. Pycnides are abundant, associated with the apothecia of 
L. abietina. Stylospores are very abundant, 3055 to 53560 long, on basidia that measure, 
with their attached spermatia, 1757. | 
Specimen 10. On firs, also from Mount Gurnigel: Scheer. Exs. No. 535, sub L. leuco- 
cephala, var. denudata. On the left-hand specimen in my copy (original ed, 1847) occur 
spermogones differing in character from the other spermogones or pycnides already de- 
scribed in connexion with L. abietina. They are very small, distinct tubercles, white- 
pruinose, but black when the white powder is rubbed off; marked by a small, black, 
punctiform ostiole, that is usually visible only under moisture. The spermatia are 
linear, with obtuse ends, curved, and somewhat resembling those of some forms of Ope- 
grapha vulgata, ¿55 long, on linear, simple sterigmata, that measure 5555 with sper- 
matia attached. 
Specimen 11. Hepp Exs. No. 140, sub L. abietina. I found only one spermogone, 
occupying a small papillar elevation of the thallus, with a black, stellate-fissured apex, 
containing long, linear or filiform, much curved or waved spermatia, borne on very short, 
subglobose or oval sterigmata. The character of this spermogone is that of those of L. 
parasema, to which it may perhaps be referred, though no apothecia of that species here 
occur, and the spermogone occupies the thallus of L. abietina. If it is to be regarded as 
belonging to the latter, it is very different from any of the other spermogones or pyenides 
more usually found in connexion with it. If we consider it a stray spermogone of 
another lichen, it must be regarded as parasitic. There is every reason to believe that 
stray parasitic spermogones or pycnides are not uncommon among the lower lichens ; 
and it will be readily understood how their presence should be a fertile source of per- 
plexity both to the physiologist, morphologist, and systematist. 
Of the pycnides and spermogones of Z. abietina, lichenologists have made several 
varieties and species of lichens, referring them to different genera, as the following syno- 
nymy illustrates :— 
Verrucaria leucocephala, Ach. L. U. p. 286; Borr. Engl. Bot. pl. 2642 (1938). fig. 2a, b; Hook. Br. 
Flora, p. 152; Tayl. Fl. Hib. p. 90; Bohler, Lich. Britan. Exs. 
Pyrenothea leucocephala, Yr. L. E. R. p. 454; Leight. Ang. p. 65, pl. 28. f. 1, Exs. No. 164; Mass., Rich. 
p. 152, fig. 297; Schærer, Exs. Nos. 533, 534. 
Pyrenothea vermicellifera, Fr. (pr. p.). 
Lecidea leucocephala, vars. denudata and globulifera (excl. syn. Verrucaria aphanes) pr. p. ; Scher. Enum. 
p. 138. 
What I have hereinabove designated pycnides have been described by other authors as 
spermogones. I have preferred classing them as pyenides on account mainly of the colour, 
form, and size of the stylospores. Spermatia are never coloured; and though some of 
them are longer even than the stylospores of L. abietina, none of them are so broad. On 
* Which is tolerably well represented in Smith and Sowerby's * English Botany,’ plate 2642 (=2nd edition 1938), 
fig. 2, a. 
