LICHENS AND LICHEN. PARASITES

Biatora sect. Biatorina Tuck., Syn. N. Arner. Lich., 2, 29; 1888.
Sporoblastia Trevis., Linnaea, 28, 290 ; 1856.
(!lioston~unz Fries, Syst. Orb. Veg., 116; 1825 [based on spermogoriia only].
Type : Massalongo listed tell species, all of which are still coi~sidered as belonging iii this group,
whether as genus or subgenus. Sporoblastia was based on Biatorina Mtiss. and Gyulolechia Mass.,
both older names.
Thallus crustosc, irideterminatc or determiiiate, ecorticate, algae protococlcoid. Apothecia
immersed to sessile, amphithecium abseiit; parathecium waxy, hyaline or light coloured, never
carbonaceo~s ; dis: light colou~ed ; hypothecium hyaline ; paraphyses unbranched ; asci 8-spored ;
ascospores small, relatively long ellipsoid, 2-celled with thin wall and very thin septum.
BIA~RINA SUDLUTESCENS (Nyl. in Crombie) Dodge, comb. nov.
Lecunoru sublutescens Nyl. in Crombie, Jour. Bot. Brit. Foi.., 14,21; 1876 : Jonr. Linn. Soc. Bot.,
15, 186 ; 1876 : Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. [London], 168,49 ; 1879 : Rept. Sci. Results Voy. "Chal-
lenger" Bot., 1, 2, 236 ; 1885 : Mull.-Arg., Bot. Jahrb. [Engler] , 4, 137 ; 1884.
Type : Kerguelen, Swains Bay*, A. E. Eaton (Venus Transit Exp.).
Thallus about 200~ thick, rimose areolate to almost granulose, Chartreuse yellow, margin
thin and indeterminate, but with a narrow- black and somewhat thicker margi~i where it comes in
contact with an unidentified sterile, greyish thallus; ecorticate, homoeomcrous ; algae protococcoid,
cells 6-7~ in diameter, separated by medullar hyphae, not united into colonies Apoti;ecia biatorine,
variable in size and shape, mostly about 1 mm. in diameter, sessile, appearing like an
areolate thallus where crowded, margin -iery thin, not elevated, Chartreuse yellow, disc convex,
cinnamon buff; amphithecium absent ; pmathecium hyaline, gelified, 75,~ thick just below the
thecium and extending inward and downward to the rock, becoming only about 35r thick just
inside the thallus, of thick-walled, septate, periclinal hyphae which spread fan-wise in the ihicker
portion; hypothecium of vertical hyphae with rock crystals includ~d just above the surface of the
rock and slightly more deeply staining just below the thecium which is abont 75r tall ; paraphpses
slender, closely septate, becoming moniliform above, tips not thickened and endingin the brownish
epithecial gel; asci cylindric-clavate, thin-walled tips not thickened, 50-55 X 7-&, 8-spored;
ascospores ellipsoid, hyaline, 2-celled with moderately thickened wall, 7- 9 X 34~. Spermogonia
iiot seen.
Apparently Nylander and.Muller-Argau had only fragments with imn~ature ayothecia and
described them as: "Entirely similar i11 appearance to Lecanora lutescens DC. but saxicole . . . .
Thallm sulphur-coloured, subleprose (Ca saffron-coloured) ". Various authors have used Lecanoru
1utescen.t for species now placed in various genera. Our material agrees well with the thalline
characters of Lecanora ezpdlens v. lutescens (DC.) Nyl. as described by Crombie, Monog. Lich.
Brit., 432; 1894, and probably represents the Nylanderian tradition. A study of the mature
apothecium shows that the apothecium is wholly biatorine rather than lecanorine and the spores
appear 2-celled, but as in several species of Lecidea, it has been very difficult to decide whether the
thin septum develops late, so that the spores appear mostly unicellular or whether the iincleus aid
protoplasmic strands are giving the appearance of a septum.
Crowing with a greyish, inconspicuous sterile thallus.
Kerguelen: Observatory Bay, B.A.N.Z.A.R.E. B192-31.
*In the original description, Crombie (1879) changes the citation to "shaded seacliff near Observatory
Bay, colouring the rock". I have seen neither specimen.