FINK—THE LICHENS OF MINNESOTA. 45 
spores escape thus before they have reached their full size and while yet colorless, 
and are doubtless nourished, in part at least, by the substance derived from the dis- 
solved walls of the asci. The stipes are well developed except in the single genus 
Acolium, where they are very short. . 
The horizontal thallus is crustose and varies from rudimentary and inconspicuous 
to better developed and even areolate conditions, as in our common Acolium tigillare. 
The algal symbiont is Cystococcus, except in Coniocybe, where Chroolepus may 
occur instead. The fruticose stipe is strictly a part of the fruit. 
The four genera of our flora placed in the family are certainly very closely related, 
forming a very distinct group of lichens. The plants are all minute and difficult to 
detect. They are certainly among the lowest lichens, and many of the species have 
been placed among other fungi by some authors. 
The work on the genera Calicium and Chaenotheca in Minnesota has added con- 
spicuously to known distribution. 
CONIOCYBE Ach. Vet. Akad. Hand]. 1816: 283. pl. 8. f. 16. 1816. 
The horizontal thallus is crustose and may form a smooth film over the substratum 
or become more or less scurfy. In some of the species it is more or less evanescent, 
while in the more persistent and well developed forms it resembles the thalli of the 
Chaenothecas and is nearly as well developed. There is no cellular cortex, but the 
protective hyphal layer is well developed in some of the species, The algal symbiont 
Dr. Albert Schneider finds to be a form of Chroolepus, at least in certain plants ex- 
amined. The thallus is more or less widely spread over the substratum as a continuous 
or more or less broken layer. The stipe is similar to that of Calicium. 
The apothecia are similar in form to those of Calicium, but are usually ashy or 
yellowish, though brownish black apothecia exist in at least one species. The ex- 
ciple, at least in our two American species, is light in color, and though it may inclose 
the apothecium in very young stages, tends to disappear, leaving the apothecium 
more orless biatoroid. The spores are simple, spherical, and hyaline or slightly colored. 
Of the other members of the family, Coniocybe is plainly most closely related to 
Chaenotheea, both as to spore and thallus characters. 
A single species occurs in the State. 
Type species Coniocybe brachypoda Sch. op. cit. 287. 
1. Coniocybe pallida (Pers.) Fr. Sched. Crit. Lich. Exsice. Suec. 3, 1826. 
‘Calicium pallidum Pers. Ann. Bot. Usteri 7:20. 1794. 
Thallus a thin, whitish crust, frequently spread over the substratum in irregular 
areas, but sometimes disappearing; stipes slender, about | to 2mm. in length, whitish 
or yellowish, often brownish toward the top; apothecia minute or small, 0.15 to 0.3 
mm. in diameter, the disk brownish and commonly convex, the exciple of the same 
color or lighter-pruinose, or in younger spheroidal apothecia both disk and exciple 
yellowish or whitish, or even white-pruinose; hypothecium pale or pale brownish; 
hymenium pale below but usually brownish above; paraphyses usually branched and 
neither enlarged nor colored toward the apex; asci cylindrical, soon dissolving; spores 
simple, spherical, hyaline, 3 to 7 # in diameter. 
Generally distributed over the State. In crevices on bark of old, rough-barked, 
deciduous trees. 
Elsewhere in North America in New England, Illinois, and Iowa. Also in Europe. 
CALICIUM Pers. Ann. Bot. Usteri 7: 20. 1794. 
The horizontal thallus is crustose, but is rather inconspicuous, scarcely reaching 
anything more highly differentiated than a thin and minutely granulose condition, and 
is frequently very evanescent, It may be entirely wanting in parasitic species, and 
in these, as well as in some of the nonparasitic species, algal cells may be entirely 
