84 



SPHAERIALES 



and alveolate, carbonous, suberose or fleshy and horny when dry; asci clavate to 

 cylindric, 6-8-spored, paraphyses present or lacking; spores hyaline, 1-2-celled. 



This is not regarded as a natural family, but one based largely upon convenience. 

 The Cordieritaceae and Cyttariaceae have been treated as separate families, though 

 apparently considered to be related by Lindau (Nat. Pflanzenf. 1:1:241, 1897). 

 Saccardo pointed out the relationship of the first family to the Pyrenomycetes 

 (Syll. Fung. 8:810, 1889), and it seems probable that both are to be regarded as 

 intermediate between this group and the Discomycetes, in which they have been 

 included. They possess in common a stroma with closed ascomata that finally 

 become more or less cupuloid. The texture of the stroma in the one reflects the 

 Sphaeriaceae, in the other the Hypocreaceae. 



A. Stroma branched, carbonous or suberose; as- 



comata terminal, suoerficial; paraphyses lack- 

 ing 



1. Spores 1-celled; stroma much branched above, 



horny-carbonous 



2. Spores 2-celled; stroma fascicled-ramose, su- 



berose 



B. Stroma globose to turbinate, not branched, fleshy 



to corneous; ascomata immersed, opening to 

 form an alveolate surface; paraphyses present; 

 spores 1-celled 



Cordierites 8:810 

 Acroscyphus 8:811 



Cyttaria 8:4; 38 



Family 30. VERRUCARIACEAE 



Zahlbruckner 63-92 



Mycelium parasitic on blue-green or yellow-green algae, and forming a more 

 or less distinct crustose, foliose or fruticose thallus, the latter usually superficial 

 but sometimes below the surface; perithecia distinct, single, cespitose or united in 

 a stroma, usually globoid and ostiolate, membranous, coriaceous or carbonous; 

 asci 1-many-spored; spores various. 



The members of this family differ from the Sphaeriaceae only in the presence 

 of algae in the mycelium; in short, they are pyrenomycetes parasitic on algae. 

 At present it is most convenient to draw this distinction as sharply as possible, 

 but it is practically certain that this places the species of more than one natural 

 genus in two separate families. In some cases, the same species may be parasitic 

 on algae or saprophytic on bark, a fact that furnishes one of the chief reasons for 

 including lichens with the other fungi. In the past, considerable confusion has 

 resulted from those fungi that grow as parasites on lichens, but most of these 

 have now been recognized and set apart as distinct genera of Sphaeriaceae on the 

 basis of the lichenicole habit. 



A. Perithecia separate, at least not in a stroma 

 1. Thallus with blue-green algae, Nostoc, Scyto- 

 nema, Rivularia, etc. 

 a. Asci 4-8-spored 

 (1) Spores 1-celled 



(a) Algae Nostoc 



X. Spores ciliate at one end; asci 4-spored; 

 paraphyses lacking 



y. Spores not ciliate; asci 8-spored; pa- 

 raphyses present, ramose 



(b) Algae Scytonema; paraphyses ramose 



(c) Algae Rivulariaceae 



Subfamily Pyrenidiae 



Cocciscia 90 



Rhabdopsora 90 

 Rhrdothrix 91 



