Series 2. Species solidæ. 39. Solid coralline mosses; among which is the orchel.
The genus of lichenoides contains 135 species, disposed according to the following scheme:
| Ordo I. Species aphyllæ mere crustaceæ. } | 1. Tuberculosæ. 8. |
| 2. Scutellatæ. 18. | |
| Ordo II. Species foliosæ. } | 1. Gelatinosæ tuberculosæ et scutellatæ. 35. |
| 2. Aridiores et exsuccæ, scutellatæ. 100. | |
| 3. Aridiores peltatæ et clypeatæ. 121. |
These plants are not only largely described, and accompanied with the most perfect assemblage of synonyms; but every species is accurately figured, and many of them in various views, and at different ages of their growth; by which this laborious work, notwithstanding it is conversant upon the minutest, and consequently the most abstruse parts of botany, may nevertheless be justly esteemed, without any exaggeration, one of the most complete works extant of the kind.
Dr. Hill, in his History of Plants, has disposed them into five genera, under the following names: 1. Usnea, comprehending the hairy tree-mosses; 2. Platysma, flat-branched tree-mosses, the lungwort, and others; 3. Cladonia, containing the orchel and coralline-mosses; 4. Pyxidium, the cup-mosses; 5. Placodium, the crustaceous mosses.
The plants of this extensive genus are very different in their form, manner of growing, and general appearance: on which account those authors, who preserve them under the same name, saw the propriety and necessity of arranging them into different orders and subdivisions, that the species might be distinguished with greater facility. Upon the same principle Dr. Dillenius and Dr. Hill have formed them into several genera.
So far as the parts of fructification are distinguishable in these plants, they appear in different forms upon different species: on some, in the form of tubercles; on others, in the form of little concave dishes, called scutellæ; on others, of oblong flat shields or pelts. All these are conceived by Micheli and Linnæus to be receptacles of male flowers. The female flowers and seeds are suspected by the same authors to be dispersed in the form of farina or dust upon the same plants, and in some instances on separate ones. Dillenius has not dared to determine any thing positively with regard to the real parts of fructification in these lichens: time will hereafter, it is to be hoped, throw more light upon the subject.
In order to convey a more distinct idea of the several plants of this genus, which enter into œconomical or medical uses in the various parts of the world, we shall distribute them into several orders, according to the custom of former writers: and as is not consistent with our plan to describe each of these species, we shall refer to the page of the more modern authors, where they may be found.
1. Lichenes filamentosi.
Such as consist of mere solid filaments, of a firm and solid but flexible texture, having the appearance of fructification in the form of scutellæ, or flat round bodies growing from the sides or extremities of these filaments.