Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/199

 ADDITIONS TO THE BRITISH LICHEN-FLORA. 177

The luiiiinous fungus referred to iu the March number of ' Science Gossip,' seems to be tlie same with Ayarlcm Gardneri, Berk., an interesting account of which was laid before the Linnean Society in 1869, in a letter from Mr. Collingwood. The writer stated that this species in Borneo could be distinctly seen in the dark, shining with a soft pale greenish light ; the older specimens were described as possessing a greenish lumi- nous glow, like the glow of the electric discharge. The mycelium of this species, like the mycelium of Tolyporus minosus, Fr., mentioned above, was luminous. It was stated that Mr. Hugh Low had once seen the jungle all in a blaze of light, liy which he could see to read as he was riding across the island by jungle road. Several other species are men- tioned as phosphorescent in Berkeley's ' Introduction to Cryptogamic Botany,' p. 265. I have several times observed flowers to be luminous, especially during certain atmospheric conditions in midsummer ; such in- stances as the luminosity of stale fish, potatoes, etc., are of course known to every one. A year or two ago, when returning home through Epping Forest at night, after a long day's excursion, I saw a very luminous object on the ground in the distance ; on nearing it I found it to be a dead rat, which I brought home in my vasculum, and laid on the garden bed, where it preserved its luminosity for several nights. — Wouthington G. Smith in ^Science Gossip.'

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��ADDITIONS TO THE BRITISH LICHEN-FLORA.

By the IIev. James M. Crombie, M.A., F.L.S.

No. II.

In addition to those formerly recorded in Vol. VIII. p. 95 of this Journal, as supplementary to my Lich. Brit. Enum., there now fall to be enumerated the following species, which chiefly since that time have been gathered and determined. Several are again new species, the majority of which were collected by myself last autumn, during a short excursion to the Blair Athole district, in the central Highlands of Scotland. This tract hitherto, as it would appear, quite unexplored by any lichenologist, yielded a very goodly number alike of rarities and of novelties, the ma- jority of the latter being still undetermined.

Pyrenopsis fuscaiida, Nyl. Enum. 144. On rocks in maritime tracts. Rare in the Channel Islands, where it has been gathered sparingly, at Noirmont and Le Moge, Jersey (Larbalestier).

Calicium retiuens, Nyl. in Flora, 1868, p. 161. On the bark of Oak in maritime tracts. Apparently rare in the Channel Islands, and gathered only very sparingly in Jersey (Larbalestier), although, from the small size of the apothecia, it may have been overlooked elsewhere.

Alectoriu cupiUaris, Ach. L. U. 593. Not uncommon with var. cqna, Ach., on old Pines in the Highlands of Scotland, at least in Braemar, but always baiTen. From A. jubata it is distinguished by the greyish colour of the thallus, aiul by the reaction K+ ; the former with its vnrs,. prolixa, Ach., and cliahjbeij'ormis, Lin., having olive-brown thallus and reaction K =, according to Dr. Nylander,

VOL. IX. [JUNE 1, 1871.] N

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