LICHENS AND FUNGI OF OTAGO, NEW ZEALAND. 447 



simple in outline or solseform ;* generally 1-septate ; sometimes no septum 

 visible in young state ; olive or brown according to age ; -0003'' to -0004'' long, 

 •00015" broad. Associated with the full-sized spores are numerous half spores ; 

 probably the result of the friction of the glass slides under examination ; generally 

 sub-oblong or sub-spherical. In one sub-degenerate and oldish apothecium — not 

 apparently in any distinct or separate conceptacle — I met with multitudes of cor- 

 puscles, having the characters of stylospores ; colourless, irregular (sub-spherical, 

 oval, oblong, or pyriform) ; about -00015'' long, and "00009'' broad. 



So far as regards the highest or most perfect condition of the apothecia, it 

 will be observed that those of A . Usnece agree with those of the microspermous 

 varieties of A. Smithii. But the spores are greatly smaller than those of the 

 commoner forms of A. Smithii, which are generally -00066'' to -00090" long, and 

 •00030" to -00040" broad ; while the stylospores (should they really prove to be 

 so) are also greatly inferior in size to those of A. Smitkii, in which they are 

 •00040" to -00066" long, and 00033" to 00040" broad. No spermogones and no 

 separate or isolated pycnides were detected. There are two forms of A. Smithii, 

 which it is instructive to compare with A. Usnece, viz. : — 



2. Sub nom. A. microspermus, Tul. (Hepp exs. 477. Lecidea thallicola, Mass.), 

 on the thallus of Parmelia caperata, Ach. The mature apothecia are usually 

 papillseform ; but in the old state they become flattened and maculseform, re- 

 sembling the genus Celidium in external aspect. This maculseform condition is 

 much more unlike typical species of Abrothallus than are the majority of forms of 

 A . Usnece. The apothecia are accompanied with pycnides ; and associated also 

 are the spermogones of the Parmelia, which are apt to be confounded with the 

 said pycnides ; but which are immersed, black, and punctiform. 



3. A. Smithii, Tul. var. ; parasitic on the thallus of Hicasolia pallida, Nyl. 

 (Syn. 372. Sticta pallida, Kunth ; S. Kunthii, Del. Linds. Mem. Spermog. 205) ; 

 Mexico; in Herb., Kew. Apothecia small, black, lecidiiform; rounded or 

 flattened ; epithalline or sub-immersed. Hymenium, blue with iodine ; a reaction 

 which is exceptional in this species, and which is noteworthy as connecting it 

 with A. oxysporus, and retaining it within the category of the Lichens (from 

 which Nylander dissociates it, regarding it as a Fungus, Prodrom. 55). Para- 

 physes with deep brown tips. Thecce 8-spored ; -0013" long, -0006" broad. 

 Spores brown ; 1-septate ; figure-8 shaped, or without constriction opposite the 

 septum ; variable as to size— frequently elongated and narrow; 0006" long, -00016" 

 broad. 



4. Var. ceratina, Sch. (U barbata, Fr.) ; Rio Janeiro, Henry Paul, 1846; in 



* " Shoe-sole-shaped" — " Schuhsohlenfbrmig" (Korb. Syst. Lich. Germ. 373), a graphic and 

 appropriate term in reference to spores, which are 2-locular, with one division (upper) broader and 

 shorter, and the other (lower) narrower and longer (as in Abrothallus Smithii, Tul. Linds. Monog. 

 Abroth. plate iv. fig. 12). 



VOL. XXIV. PART II. 6 E 



