B^EOMYCES. 



263 



which grows on the bare volcanic lava of Vesuvius and 

 Ischia. In some parts of northern Europe it is eaten by 

 game and other wild animals ; and in Lapland it is often 

 used by the reindeer as a substitute for Cladonia rangiferina. 

 It is probable therefore that its thallus contains, in slight 

 degree, starchy matter. Its spores are fusiform, elongated, 

 triseptate, and pale yellow, resembling those of Peltigera. 



3. Stereocaulon denudatum (denudo, to make naked) 

 differs in its stipes being slender, angulose, attenuated, spa- 

 ringly branched, verruculose-squamulose above, naked and 

 smooth below. Apothecia usually lateral, small, aggregated. 



Also a saxicolous species, but much less common than 

 the preceding. It occurs in the Antarctic regions, on the 

 Swiss Alps, Mexican Andes, and in other parts of the world. 



Genus II. B^OMYCES, Fers. 



Gen. Char. Thallus tartareous. Stipes solid, destitute of a 

 cortical layer, simple or divided. Apothecia capitate, immargi- 

 nate, velate, becoming spongy and araneose within, terminal on 

 stipe. (Name from fiaios, small, and /jlvktjs, a mushroom, from 

 its resemblance to various small fungi. This genus bears the 

 same structural resemblance or natural affinity to Cladonia and 

 Stereocaulon that Calicium does to Spkarojphoron.) 



