CRYPTOGAMIA ALG^. U^^ 



But what particularly diftinguillies this Lichen is, 

 that the margins of the leaves are edo;ed with a 

 black fringe, which gives them a crifped ap- 

 pearance. This fringe, when viewed through a 

 microfcope, appears to confifb of a crov^d of 

 little pedicles, termiaated each with a head or 

 clufter of branches, like trees in miniature ; and 

 not only upon the margin of the leaves, but fre- 

 quently alfo upon their difc, this fringe grows 

 in little clumps or balls, appearing to the naked 

 eye4*rke fmall black warts. 



Befides this fringe, which may be confidcred as 

 the female frucftifications of the plant, there are 

 alfo male warts found upon the difc of the func 

 individual. Thefe are black and v/rinklrd, at 

 firft flat, and a little funk or imprefs'd in tiie 

 leaf, but afterwards more convex and elevated. 

 They appear through the microfcope to be of 

 the fame ftrufture with the hair-button kind be- 

 fore mentioned, but compofed of finer hairs, 

 differently twin:ed, and more clofely compared. 



Such is the defcription of our fpecimens, which 

 areprecifely the fame with thofe of Dillenius at 

 Oxford^ from which the figure was made which 

 Linnxus has cited for his JL, polyrhizus. But 

 why that author, in giving the fpecific difference 

 of that plant, fhould fay of it, that it is utrin- 

 que I^evis^ when the under fide is fo remarkably 

 rough with fibrous radicles, is more than we are 

 ?ibk to refolve. As we wifli to follow nature, 

 K k k rather 



