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One of a class of cellular, flowerless plants, (technically called Lichenes), having no distinction of leaf and stem, usually of scaly, expanded, frond-like forms, but sometimes erect or pendulous and variously branched. They derive their nourishment from the air, and generate by means of spores. The species are very w…

Belonging to, or covered with, lichens. Tennyson.

Of, pertaining to, or obtained from, lichens. Lichenic acid.

Having the form of a lichen.

A substance isomeric with starch, extracted from several species of moss and lichen, esp. from Iceland moss.

Of or pertaining to lichenography.

One who describes lichens; one versed in lichenography.

A description of lichens; the science which illustrates the natural history of lichens.

One versed in lichenology.

The science which treats of lichens.

Of, pertaining to, or resembling, lichens; abounding in lichens; covered with lichens. G. Eliot.

A fucus or seaweed much used in the East for soups and jellies; Ceylon moss (Gracilaria lichenoides).

Increasing in size by growth on all sides, as the lichens.

Having the seeds or spores covered, as in certain lichens. Gray.

The ascigerous fructification of lichens, forming masses of various shapes.

A violet dye obtained from several species of lichen (Roccella tinctoria, etc.), which grow on maritime rocks in the Canary and Cape Verd Islands, etc. Tomlinson.

An interstice or small space, as between the cracks of the surface in certain crustaceous lichens; or as between the fibers composing organs or vessels that interlace; or as between the nervures of an insect's wing.

One of the spores contained in the asci of lichens and fungi. [See Illust. of Ascus.]

bladder or tube in which are inclosed the seedlike reproductive particles or sporules of lichens and certain fungi.

Not furnished with shields or beds for the spores, as the thallus of certain lichens.