( 232) 
roph.; &in Ann. 3,11, p.243. Tul. Mém. sur les Lich. pp. 81, 186, t. 15, 
f. 10,12. Nyl. Syn. p. 173. 
Apothecia crateriformia, excipulo proprio nigro thallino clavato, 
ex apicibus ramorum intumescentibus formato, recepto. Spore e 
thecis cylindraceis mox ejectz, obtusissime ellipsoideze medio con- 
stricta, biloculares, fusce. Spermatia oblonga; sterigmatibus artic- 
ulatis. Thallus fruticulosus, erectus, solidus, medulla primitus flaves- 
cente, dein chondroideo-cartilaginea. 
The final evolution of the medullary layer, which I have not found 
noticed by authors, sufficiently distinguishes the thallus of this type from 
that of the preceding. The apothecia, it has been above remarked, agree 
in all essential points of structure with those of Acoliwm; of which 
Acroscyphus may be taken for a fruticulose exhibition. In this view it is 
interesting as clearly lessening the perhaps too sharp contrast between 
Spherophorus and the Caliciei. 
The oblong spermatia of the present genus (Tul. J. c. t. 15, f. 12) differ, 
like the spores, but little from those of Acolium tympanellum (Nyl. Ll. ¢. 
t. 5, f. 32) but the jointed sterigmas (arthrosterigmata, Nyl.) afford a 
marked distinction in this tribe. 
Originally collected (growing upon the earth, and dead wood) by Hum- 
boldt and Bonpland, at Perote, in the State of Vera Cruz, Mexico (Tul. l. c., 
Nyl.) this lichen has since been found, upon trunks, in Peru (Mont. J. c.) 
and in the Himalaya mountains by Hooker. It is not improbable that 
it may occur within the southern boundary of the United States. 
Tholurna, Norm. (Bot. Zeit. 1863, p. 225) a corticoline lichen of the 
Norwegian alps, is the latest addition to fruticulose Caliciacei, and is 
regarded by Nylander (in Prodr. Fl. N. Gran. p. 144, n.) as the type of a 
distinct family, to be placed next after the Spherophorei ; and inclining, 
on the one hand, towards these and the Caliciei, and, on the other, towards 
Pilophorus and Cladonia papillaria. The last comparison is indeed 
directly suggested by the podetiiform, fistulous thallus of the new lichen; 
but its fruit, however differently conditioned, refers the plant to the near 
neighbourhood of Acroscyphus, with which it appears also to well agree in 
its spermogones and their contents, as first described by Nylander. As 
seen in section (or, at least, so far as seen by me) the apothecium of 
Tholurna offers a hypothecium differing from that of Acroscyphus in 
being much less crescent-shaped, or even straight ; as if it were a black 
band, relieved, on the one hand, by the white base of the thalline recep- 
tacle, and, on the other, by the equally straight, white, interior layer of 
the exciple. But there is nothing in this, apart from the thallus, which 
is not observable in species, as well of Calicium, as of Acolium ; and the 
thallus, if, in spite of obvious analogues, in other tribes, beside the cited 
