Plumt ofMw South Wales. W5 



South Shetland, from whose top the snow had been mehed; 

 and of gathering specimens of a small vegetable which grows 

 upon it. These he presented lO me for consideration. I 

 beg you to accept some of them for your herbarium, with 

 a request that you would communicate to me your 

 opinion respecting tliem. I show you also another sample 

 of this vegetable, brought from a different place by another 

 person, that yon may compare them. 



Captain Mackay informed me, he had seen a kvf tufts 

 of dwarfish grass ; but as this is rare, it may have been 

 introduced by some visitor or from some ship. 



According to this view of the matter, the Flora of this 

 new world consists of a single species; which I hope you 

 will b(^ very particular in describing. 



While I thus lay before you this inrteresting production, I 

 congratulate you on the receipt of numberless other produc- 

 tions from foreign climes, which our spirited navigators are 

 incessantly presenting to us. 



The specimens presented to me by Dr. Mitchell, evident- 

 ly belong to a species of Lichen. Several of them were 

 covered with small tubercles very much resembling the fruit 

 of Roccella, which, with the habitat of the plant, induced me 

 to refer it to that genus. On a closer examination, howev- 

 er, I have no doubt of its being a species of Usnea without 

 the proper fruit, merely having the ccphalodia which are not 

 uncommon in U. fiorida, &z;c. It has the central hyaline 

 thread, so constant and important a character in this genus. 

 According to Acharius, all the Usnese are found exclusively 

 on trees: so that this species, which grows on rocks appears 

 to form an exception to all the rest. In the Flore Francais, 

 however, the U.florida is said to occur sometimcb on rocks 

 and the U. artkulata on the ground. The present species 

 does not appear to be described in the Synopsis Methodia 

 Lichenum of Acharius ; I have therefore considered it as a 

 new one, and have called U.fasciata. 



USNEA Acharius. 



Receptaculum iiniversnle subcrustaceum teretiuscu- 

 lum, ramosum plerumque pendulum, fasciculo dnctulorum fi- 

 liformi elastico centrali hvalino percussum. Partiah orbi- 



VeL. VI No. 1. '14 



