PHYSCIA. 



145 



dantly on the Himalayas, and in many other parts of the world. 

 From containing a considerable quantity of a bitter prin- 

 ciple, it has been used as a febrifuge instead of cinchona 

 bark or quinine. We have found it yield, on ammoniacal 

 maceration, a red dye. The Egyptians at one time em- 

 ployed it in the baking of bread, as a substitute for another 

 species, P. prunastri ; and it has been used also in the 

 making of hair-powders. 



2. Physcia ciliaeis (cilium, the hairs of the eyelids). 

 Lacinise subascending, — above brownish-green or glaucous, 

 pubescent, — whitish and slightly reticulate-lacunose below 7 , 

 — linear, divaricate-ramose, ciliate at margins, subcartilagi- 

 nous; apothecium varies in site; thalamium blackish, sub- 

 pruinose; margin erect, afterwards lacerate- dentate, fim- 

 briate, or passing into foliaceous growths. 



A somewhat elegant and common species, growing on 

 trees, rocks, and stones in lowland and subalpine regions; 

 in this neighbourhood we have found it attaining consider- 

 able size and beauty on roadside walls. This species pos- 

 sesses great interest, as having been the first Lichen in 

 which the existence of spermogones was, a few years ago, 

 discovered and recorded by Itzigsohn in Germany."* They 



* Vide various papers in the * Botanische Zeitung 5 for 1850 and 1851. 



L 



