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laria, as respects no less its higher thalline structure, viewed in relation 
to Synalissa, and from the point of view of the structural type of Col- 
lemei, as its atypical fruit, stands, plainly enough, for Umbilicaria. } 
Inexplicate apothecia, thatis to say, gymnocarpous fruits in which the 
normal evolution has been prematurely concluded, and the organ assumes 
more or less of an angiocarpous aspect, are sufficiently common in the 
genus immediately preceding, and owing perhaps in part, as already sug- 
gested, to the prevalent presupposition of an ordinal difference in Col- 
lemaceous lichens, authors are not yet agreed as to the typically gymno- 
carpous character of the whole of them; though we scarcely find traces 
of the recognition of other structure in the learned lichenographer, who 
alone, since Acharius, has elaborated the whole family.? If indeed 
Synalissa and Omphalaria belong to Collemei, they belong to an assem- 
blage, the great majority and all the highest types of which are undis- 
tinguishable in their general fruit-characters from Parmeliaceous families ; 
and the presumption is thus an exceedingly strong one that exceptional 
forms of fructification, however looking in a different direction shall yet 
prove to be reducible to the same. But the fact of this reducibleness is 
perhaps not questioned by any author, as regards the larger part of the 
variously anomalous apothecia occurring in Collemei, and especially 
in Omphalaria. Though embarrassed, and to at least the same extent 
with Synalissa, with inexplicate receptacles, now sunken (endocarpoid) 
and now more prominent or verrucarioid, no doubt seems to be enter- 
tained that the group is really, and, as a whole, associable with Collema, 
1 This resemblance is marked in the Cuban O. deusta, described in a former 
note. In another interesting illustration of the present group of Lichens, found by 
Mr. Wright in company with O. deusta, and QO. Wrightii, we have however the 
habit rather of a Pannaria, not remote from P. plumbea. ——- Omphalaria Cubana 
(sp. nova) thallo orbiculari incrassato viridi-olivaceo sub-imbricato basi umbili- 
cato-affixo, lobis squamiformibus appressis, periphericis latioribus, omnibus crena- 
tis, subtus rugoso-verrucosis; apotheciis lecanorinis, paraphysibus distinctis. 
Shaded limestone cliffs, Guajuybon, Island of Cuba, Mr. Wright. Thallus (in the 
two specimens gathered) not quite half an inch in diameter, made up of crenate, 
closely appressed and coalescent lobes, which attain at length the thickness of 
jmm. Collogonidia solitary, or in small clusters, amidst anastomosing filaments, 
which are most to be observed at the centre, as the collogonidia are most abundant 
at the circumference. A single, innate, lecanorine apothecium afforded no mature 
spores. 
» It is true that the term ‘ perithecium’ is employed by Nylander in describing 
the fruit of Synalissa micrococca (Syn. p. 95) as the section including this species 
is defined as possessing ‘endocarpeine’ apothecia; but both these terms must with- 
out doubt be used in a large sense, as, not to refer to the note on page 98 of the 
same work, or the difficulty of admitting Parmeliaceous and Verrucariaceous 
receptacles in one and the same genus, the section includes also our 8. polycocca, 
Nyl., the apothecia of which are as distinctly undeveloped-lecanorine, as the same 
organ is admitted to be in S. lignyota. 
