PDF - CES (IISc)

FAMILIES AND GENERA 313
"pycnidia" are still imperfectly known. In designating the gonidial algae,
the more comprehensive Protococcaceae has been substituted for Protococcus,
as in many cases the alga is* probably not Protococcus as now understood,
but some other genus of the family 1 .
SUBCLASS I. ASCOLICHENS
SERIES I. PYRENOCARPINEAE
It is on mycological grounds that Pyrenocarpineae are placed at the
base of lichen classification. There is no evidence that the series was first
in time.
I. MORIOLACEAE
This family was described by Norman 2 in 1872 from specimens col-
lected by himself in Norway or in the Tyrol, on soil or more frequently on
trees. There seems to have been no further record, and Zahlbruckner,
while accepting the family, suggests that an examination or revision may
be necessary.
The thallus is crustaceous. The algal cells, Protococcaceae, occur either
in groups (sometimes stalked) surrounded by a plectenchymatous wall and
called by Norman "goniocysts," or they form nests in the thallus termed
"nuclei" which are surrounded by a double wall of plectenchyma, colourless
in the interior and brown outside. Norman invented the term "Allelositis-
mus," which ,may be rendered "mutualism," to indicate this peculiar form
of thallus. The species of Spheconisca are fairly numerous on poplars, willows
and conifers:
;
Algae in 'goniocysts" i. *Moriola Norm. 3
Algae in double-walled "nuclei" ... 2. *Spheconisca Norm.
II. EPIGLOEACEAE
The family consists of but one genus and one species, Epigloea bactrospora,
and, according to Zahlbruckner, further examination is necessary to make
certain as to the lichenoid nature of the plant.
Zukal 4 found the perithecia scattered over the leaves of mosses, and he
alleges that hyphae connected with the perithecium were closely associated
with the alga, Palmella botryoides, and were causing it no harm. Along with
the perithecia he also found minute pycnidia. The "thallus" is of a gelatinous
nature and homoiomerous in structure; the perithecia are soft and clear-
coloured with many-spored asci and colourless one-septate spores.
The small globose pycnidia contain simple sporophores and acrogenous
straight or slightly bent rod-like spores.
Asci many-spored ; spores one-septate, i. *Epigloea Zukal.
1 2 See p. 56.
Norman 1872 and '74.
3 Genera marked with an asterisk have not been found in the British Isles.
4 Zukal 1890.