THE BRYOLOGIST 
Vol. XII 
May 1909 
No. 3 
LICHEN NOTES No. 10. 
Cladonia gracilis a, verticillata f. symphycarpia Tuck, and Cladonia 
symphycarpa Fr., a present view of their identity. 
G. K. Merrill. 
Tuckerman in his Synopsis writes of the first plant of our caption, as 
known only from the coast of Massachusetts. Henry Willey records it in 
his New Bedford list with the note “very rare,” and in Dr. Fink’s Upper 
Mississippi Valley list it is reported from Minnesota. Included in no other 
American catalogue so far as examined, the plant might be considered as of 
rare occurrence or else difficult of recognition. As a matter of fact the form 
is far from uncommon, and assuming that it has been as copiously collected 
in the past as now, the name or names under which it may sojourn in our 
American herbaria surely offers a matter for speculative interest. Tucker- 
man’s reason for affiliating the form with Cl. gracilis verticillata is not at 
all obvious to one well acquainted with the characteristics of both. It is 
possible that the well developed primary thallus of f. symphycarpia sug- 
gested affinity through the f. cervicornis, or in another way the connective 
hint may have been furnished by the rarely observed tendency of a. verti. 
cillata to develope with obliterated scyphi. This condition however is too 
inconstant to be considered other than a mere modification, and while sym- 
phycarpeous states of Cladonia forms are often to be noted, the writer has yet 
to observe any transitional conditions that would serve to conclusively 
ally f. symphycarpia with any known Cladonia species. The podetia of f. 
symphycarpia are distinctly club shaped, and with this fact in view, it is 
remarkable that Tuckerman should have conceived of a relationship for the 
form with a. verticillata , a scyphiferous type, and at the same time deny to 
C. symphycarpa Fr. a plant of much similarity, a like affinity (so finally 
assumed by Fries) to C. pyxidata. There are three reasons for the almost 
total failure of American lichenists to recognize f. symphycarpia. The first 
of these is the ineffective description of the plant offered by Tuckerman in 
the Synopsis ; the second is the reallv excusable error that our students have 
* Explanation of the Plate IV. 
No. 1. Cladonia subcariosa Nyl. (C. gracilis a. verticillata f. symphycarpia 
Tuck.) the first collected specimen designated by Tuckerman’s name. 
No. 2. Cladonia alpicola (Flot.) Wain. m. Karelica Wain, from Knox Co., 
Maine. 
No. 3. Another example of Cladonia alpicola Karelica from Central Village, 
Conn. 
No. 4. Cladonia poly car pia Merrill (Cl. symphycarpa Fr., “ macrophylline 
state”), from the Tuckerman collection. 
No. 5. Cladonia polycarpia from Maryland. 
The March Bryologist was issued March 3, 1909. 
