DR LAUDER LINDSAY ON NEW LICHENICOLOUS MICRO-FUNGI. 539 



reagent. Large quantity of oil globules intermixed with the hymenial consti- 

 tuents. Contents of young asci colourless, gradually assuming a brown tint as 

 the protoplasm becomes distinctly partitioned into sporidia. Latter are, in 

 maturity and when free, deep brown, generally 1- sometimes 2-septate; oval 

 or broadly ellipsoid. It is possible the parasite on U. pustulata may prove 

 referable to what Korber describes in his " Parerga" (pp. 40 and 469) as Ticho- 

 thecium grossum, which affects the thallus of U. arctica, Ach. The latter species 

 of Umbilicaria is the seat also of Dothidea lichenum, Smrf, which Th. Fries 

 (Lich. Arct. p. 166) suggests may be Korber's T. grossum. I have not met with 

 any description of Sommerfelt's plant. Its name, D. lichenum, is apt to be con- 

 founded with that of Massalongo's D. lichenicola (" Richerche," p. 45, fig. 81), 

 which affects the apothecia of Pachyspora mridescens, Mass.; has 1-septate 

 sporidia, that, however, are colourless, elliptic-oblong, and slightly curved ; and 

 is apparently, therefore, a different plant. 



4. M. Nephromiaria. Parasitic on thallus, and (back or under side of old) 

 apothecia of Nephromium cellulosum, Ach. ; Hermite Island, Cape Horn, Dr 

 Hooker, Antarctic Expedition, 1839-43. 



Parasite occurs as very minute, black, punctiform or papillasform, semi- 

 immersed conceptacles, dotted over the thalline rugse, or on the back of the old 

 apothecia. It is sparingly scattered about the centre of the thallus, more 

 plentifully on the thalline underside of the apothecia. The black apex is the cnly 

 part that is superficial, the body being immersed. According to their size, and the 

 form of the ostioles, the perithecia resemble those of many lichen-spermogonia. or 

 of some of the smaller Verrucarioe. They vary in size, and are sometimes con- 

 fluent, though generally scattered. The asci are sac-shaped like those of Arthonia :, 

 bulging broadly, not blue with iodine. Hymenial gelatine violet under iodine. 

 Paraphyses indistinct, and as in Verrucaria. Sporidia 3 -septate, colourless, 

 fusiform; eight in each ascus. 



The asci and sporidia agree with those of what I described in my " Memoir 

 on Spermogones" (p. 135) as Lecidea Alectorioe; and as the plants otherwise 

 appear essentially the same, I merge the two in a single type, and abolish both 

 the generic and specific* designations as inappropriate. M. Nephromiaria also 

 resembles externally M. Cargilliana ;\ but the simple, spherical, brown sporidia of 

 the latter sufficiently distinguish it. 



Also having 3-septate sporidia in sac-shaped asci is a parasite which covers 

 copiously, with its punctiform perithecia, some of the latinise of Physcia dMaris, 

 L., in Sch^erer's Exs. No. 388 (sub-nom. Parmelia ciliaris : the lower of two 

 specimens in my copy =ed. alt. immut., 1840). The body of the perithecium is 



* What was originally designated Alectoria, is now known as Neurqpogon, Taylor/' (Ntl. 

 " Syn." p. 273). 



| :t Otago Lichens and Fungi," p. 441, pi xxx. figs. 31-34. 



