2 4 



The Scottish Naturalist. 



Essachossan, and on an old ash tree in Glen Shira. The 

 only other place where I have gathered the fruit was on a 

 solitary poplar tree by the roadside beyond the policies of 

 Auchmore near Killin. Stictina fuliginosa, with its sooty 

 granules covering the upper surface, and its disagreeable mouse- 

 like smell, is also very abundant. Messrs. Turner and Hooker 

 gathered it long ago at Inveraray. Stictina limbata, distin- 

 guished by its simple round lobe, smooth and olive-brown on the 

 upper surface, with the margins densely edged with grey mealy 

 soredia, which in other places is a comparatively common species, 

 in this neighbourhood occurs more rarely. It frequents dry sub- 

 alpine woods, and the prevailing moisture at Inveraray seems to be 

 inimical to it. 



But the most interesting members of the group are Stictina 

 crocata and S. intricata, var. Thouarsii. In my wander- 

 ings through the dense woods I picked up occasionally a 

 single fragment of S. crocata, which is distinguished by its 

 crenate lobes, roughened by numerous reticulations, picked out 

 with bright yellow granules all over the upper surface ; and on 

 one tree I was delighted to see a large cluster of lobes, the most 

 luxuriant I had seen anywhere. This favoured tree grew in the 

 highest and most open part of the wood behind Auchnabreck. 

 It was exposed to all the winds of heaven ; and doubtless it was 

 owing to its elevated and isolated position that it attracted the 

 spores of this lichen, wafted to it by the winds of the Atlantic, 

 perhaps from the Azores, or the west coast of Africa or of Spain. 

 S. crocata is almost invariably found on the trunks of poplars or 

 rowan trees, avoiding the rougher bark of birches, firs, and oaks- 

 The cluster in question grew on a stunted black poplar : and, be- 

 sides the main colony, fragments of the lichen were interspersed 

 among the mossy tufts that covered the whole trunk of the tree 

 from top to bottom. 



This lichen was long ago reported as having been gathered 

 at Inveraray by Messrs. Borrer and Hooker during their memor- 

 able botanical journey in the north and west of Scotland. 

 I have found small specimens of it in the Birks of Aberfeldy, 

 and in the woods of Ardgarten, Glencroe. It is exceedingly rare 

 in Scotland. On similar trees near the upper end of the Lover's 

 Walk, and in the vicinity of Essachossan I found in considerable 

 abundance and luxuriance the Stictina Thouarsii, which was first 



