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Trib. IV.—CALICIACEI. 
Apothecia turbinato-lentiformia (crateriformia) globosave, excip- 
ulo proprio 1. nudo, seepius stipitato, 1. a thallino accessorio recepto, 
capitulum discoideum e sporis nudis coacervatis compactum sub- 
marginante. 
The distinction between Acoliwm Bolanderi (Lich. Calif. p. 27) and 
Spherophorus globiferus may certainly appear, at first sight, to be greater 
than that between Dirina and Roccella. As the two latter are yet asso- 
ciable by their (typically) thalline exciples, the former obviously agree in 
the original dissolution of the disk into a naked spore-mass. It is in this 
sense that Nylander (Sym. p. 141) has associated the groups here regarded 
as constituting the Tribe before us as his ‘ Series Epiconioidei’; and the 
common character is so extraordinary that we may well suspect a greater 
congruity of structure than has possibly yet been shown. 
If, to take two eminent types of the Series just named, we compare 
sections of the apothecia of Acroscyphus, Lév. (Hook. & Thoms. Herb. 
Ind. Or. n. 2188, 2190) and Acolium tigillare, immersed as commonly in 
its thalline wart, we scarcely find other (essential) difference of structure 
beyond a more distinct conditioning of the proper exciple of the former 
by the thallus; in which respect it is almost rivalled by Californian spe- 
cies of the latter genus. And the argument is then direct, as the close 
affinity of Acroscyphus to Spherophorus has never been disputed, to the 
proper Caliciaceous character of this last ; the question of thallus, other- 
wise than as in peculiar relations to the apothecia, not here entering into 
the discussion. But the structure of Acroscyphus is in fact, as may be 
inferred from the opinions of authors upon Sphwrophorus, much clearer 
than in the latter; and notwithstanding the significant agreement in the 
spores and spermatia, it is by no means so easy to refer this to the type 
of Caliciacei. The affinity did not however escape Turner and Borrer 
(Lich. Brit. p. 105, 119) nor Fries; though the latter finally rejected it. 
It was indeed, in the case of the authors first named, only that larger 
affinity, expressed also by the Epiconioidet of Nylander, which was 
intended; and though other relationship was confessedly most obscure, 
no attempt was made, or has perhaps ever been made, distinctly to recon- 
cile the Spherophorus-fruit with that of the Caliciei. 
The interest lies in the so-called ‘nucleus,’ representing at once, in 
Spherophorus, both proper exciple and hymenium. This nucleus, as 
clearly described by the English authors just cited (Lich. Brit. p. 118) 
who left very little for others to add to their observations, is found, when 
dissected, ‘to consist internally of a thickish outer stratum, purplish, 
