191 



disk rufous furnished with a prominent thalloicl margin torn 

 at the edge, at length becoming blackish. Asci numerous ; 

 Spores eight dark-fulvous. 



Grows on rocks and stones in the smaller streams of New 

 England. 



The following contributions to the cryptogamic flora of Essex 

 County, by Kev. John Lewis Russell, are offered by him as 

 a series of observations, to follow from time to time. 



1. Verrucaria maura. (Wahl.) Fries, Lick: Europ ; 

 Ref. p 442. 



This singularly interesting lichen may be readily noticed by 

 its pitchy-black thallus, resembling spots of tar spilled upon the 

 surface of smooth waveworn rocks and stones, which are exposed 

 to the full action of the sea. I have noticed a variety of shapes 

 in the form of the perithecia as they grow older ; yet the ver- 

 rucous character is preserved. The specimens, which I detect- 

 ed for the first time, in abundance, at Cat Island (now Lowell 

 Island) on August 6th, 1855, varied from each other in the 

 color of the thallus from green through intermediate shades to 

 that of black, and may possibly constitute well marked vm^ie- 

 ties. The forms a and b, Fries (op: cit.) seem to be the most 

 common. 



A somewhat similiar effect is produced upon the pebbles and 

 stones on the margin of our ponds, which gives them, whether 

 wet or dry, a strikingly black or inky hue. On first examina- 

 tion I was induced to consider the vegetation which produces 

 this effect to be Verrucaria umbrina^ (Fries) but the internal 

 structure of the perithecium forbids this supposition. Consult- 

 ing Koerber's Systema Lichenum Germanise, I am inclined to 

 believe that the plant in question is a representative of his 

 SphcBroiri'phale^ and I therefore propose to call it 



2. Sphoeromphale atra. 



