Series 1. _Scyphis perfectioribus._ 13. Cup-mosses.
Series 2. _Scyphis imperfectis._ 20. Horned mosses.
Ordo III. _Ramosa fruticuli specie summitatibus acutis multifariam
divisis._
Series 1. _Species tubulosæ._ 30. Tubulous coralline mosses.
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.
{1. _Gelatinosæ tuberculosæ et
scutellatæ._ 35.
Ordo II. _Species foliosæ._ {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.