CALTCIUM. 



259 



covered with a transparent membrane, which appears con- 

 tinuous with the cortical layer of the plant upon which it 

 grows. The sterigmata are linear, almost simple. The sper- 

 matia are much curved like those of Lecanora subfusca, of 

 extreme tenuity, and acrogenous. 



tt Apothecia stipitate. 



2. Calicium nigrum [niger, black or dark). Thallus 

 white, leprose, covered with pale, seruginose or ashy-grey, 

 deliquescent granules. Apothecium black, flat or tumid; 

 exciple turbinate, and, along with stipe, black, naked. There 

 are several varieties, depending chiefly on the thickness and 

 length of the stipe, which in some is short and strong, in 

 others longer and filiform ; on the degree of granulosity and 

 size of the thallus ; and on the form of the apothecium, 

 which in some is globose, and in others the thalamium be- 

 comes protruded to such an extent as to give to the fructi- 

 fication the appearance of a painter's brush. Its spores are 

 bilocular. (E. B. 414, var. spharocephalum. ; 2503, var. cur- 

 ium; 2462, var. pusillum.) 



On the bark of various of the fir tribe, and on putrid 

 trunks in lowland woods, but not frequent. 



** Apothecia (thalamium) Irown. 



3. Calicium chrysocephalum (from ^pu<ro?, gold, and 



