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130 B.A.N.Z. ANTARCTIC RESEARCH EXPEDITION<br />
and growing out as rhieinae. Podetia 0.3-0-7 mm. in diameter at the base (up to 1 mm. in the<br />
dead portion among the mosses), tapering gradually upward, up to 5 em. tall, dying at the base,<br />
with occasional short branches, perpendicular to the main axis, mostly subulate, terminated by a<br />
spermogonium, or narrowly scyphiferons; cups only slightly dilated or oblique, closed or open by<br />
a small pore, rare, corticate at first, then verrncose areolate and sorediate between the areoles,<br />
especially above, and finally more or less decorticate in the upper portion; verrucae K soon<br />
reddish, medulla pale yellow, both gradually fuscescent; P faint yellow, medulla P-; cortex<br />
2&30p thick, gelified; algae in colonies which by proliferation form the verrucae, medulla not<br />
clearly differentiated from the chondroid axis which is about 35p thick, of very slender, thickwalled,<br />
conglutinate hyphae.<br />
Apothecia sessile on the margins of the cup, up to 0.3 mm. in diameter, disc flat to somewhat<br />
convex, formed by confluence of several very minute apothecia, dark brown to black; parathecium<br />
not developed; hypothecium conical, of subvertical, slender, slightly brownish hyphae; thecium<br />
not clearly differentiated, about 30-40,~ tall; paraphyses slender, brownish, dichotomously<br />
branched, tips clavate, deeper brown, imbedded in the hyaline epithecial gel which is about 5,<br />
thick above the ends of the paraphyses; asci clavate, tip thickened, protoplast truncate in the<br />
young stage, about 25 X 6-7p; ascospores unicellular, ellipsoidal, 7-8 X 2.5-3r,. [I am not quite<br />
certain that the spores measured are ascospores, although some were floating free just above the<br />
epithecium and some were imbedded in the apothecial gel in a crushed, rather thick section.]<br />
Spermogonia terminal on the snbulate podetia, black, slightly constricted at the base, ovoid,<br />
ostiole quite small; spermatiophores di- or tri-chotomous, base somewhat ventricose, tips subulate,<br />
slightly curved, 7-lor, long ; spermatia curved, tips acute, 5-7 X 0.5r,.<br />
This species is somewhat variable in podetia from the same tuft. Some are completely<br />
corticate, approaching C. gracilis var. chordalis in appearance, while the other extreme with the<br />
upper portion sorediate and partially decorticate suggests sterile C. corn~bta. The verrucose<br />
areolate cortex seems to be the most characteristic state, and when the tip of the podetium is<br />
injured, some of the verrucae grow out into squamules similar to those of the primary thallns,<br />
and in one case, a minute podetium was seen growing from the centre. B.A.N.Z.A.R.E. 540 seems<br />
to be younger, with podetia much shorter, badly parasitized and blackened in spots, while<br />
B.A.N.Z.A.R.E. 531 consists of a few long podetia without primary squamules which were<br />
found tangled in a collection of Cla.th?*ifia aggregata. The types of C. chordalis f. soredians<br />
and C. cmnuta f. gracilentwr Nyl. have not been available for study, but there is nothing in<br />
their descriptions to differentiate them from this species. The description of C. gracilis var.<br />
Campbellicvna agrees very closely with the type of C. sarmentosa as well as with our material<br />
from Macquarie Island.<br />
As Taylor originally stated, this species seems more- closely related to C. gracilis aiid<br />
C. cornuta of the northern hemisphere and may prove to be the souther11 representative of that<br />
group. The form of both the apothecia and spermogonia is that of C. gracilis and C. cornutn<br />
rather than of the C. squamosa group where Miiller-Argau placed it when he studied the type in<br />
1887 (cf. Flora, 71, 18; 1888). As there are so few spermogonia in the type, the microscopic<br />
characters in the above description are taken from our Macquarie Island material. It must be<br />
admitted that the small perforations in some of the cups suggest that C. squamosa group, although<br />
Vainio states that C. gracilis sometimes has rimose and perforate podetia. If the perforate cups<br />
are taken as the most distinctive character, the reaction with potassium hydroxide suggests<br />
C. subsquamosa Nyl. as emended by Vainio, where var. pdverz~lenta (R. Br.) Vainio from<br />
Tasmania, Table Blt., R. Rro~vn, \vonld seem closely related.
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