LICEA 223 



KEY TO THE GENERA OF THE LICEACE^E 



a. Dehiscence by regular lobes, or irregular; sporangia mostly 



sessile, subglobose or plasmodiocarpous 1. Licea 



a. Dehiscence by a membranous lid b 



b. Sessile; lid minutely and densely papillate 2. Hymenobolina 



b. Sessile; lid bearing scattered, globular warts, 1-2 ft in diam- 

 eter, and short, blunt, tubular processes 3. Kleistobolus 



b. Stalked, rarely sessile; opening by a minutely papillate lid, 



or by one or more ridges 4. Orcadella 



1. Licea Schrad. emend. Rost. 

 Mon. 218. 1875. 

 1797. Licea Schrad., Nov. Gen. Plant. 16, in part. 



Sporangia plasmodiocarpous, looped, irregular or distinct, sessile 

 and regularly rounded or elliptical; peridium simple, rather firm, 

 ruptured irregularly or by simple fissure; hypothallus none. 



This genus is distinguished from other similar plasmodiocarpous 

 forms by the extreme simplicity of its structure. In some species 

 there is absolutely no capillitium nor anything like it, simply a mass 

 of spores surrounded by thin membranous walls; in others there is a 

 scanty development of unsculptured threads which are never very 

 apparent. The spores range from pale olive, colorless under the lens, 

 through various shades of brown to dusky, almost black, in L. pusilla. 

 Schrader included in the genus the forms now included in Tubifera. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF LICEA 



a. Short to long, flattened plasmodiocarps, often branched \. L. variabilis 



a. Separate sporangia or short, pulvinate plasmodiocarps b 



b. Yellow or brownish, not dark c 



b. Deep purplish to black « 



c. Elongate, with membranous peridium; dehiscence by a longi- 

 tudinal fissure 6. L. biforis 



c. Pulvinate or subglobose; peridium more or less cartilaginous; 



dehiscence not by a longitudinal fissure d 



d. Subglobose on a narrowed base; dehiscence irregular; bright 



yellow-brown 2. L. tenera 



d. Pulvinate or forming short plasmodiocarps; dehiscence by 



regular plates or lobes; chestnut or pale brown 3. L. castanea 



e. Spores 4-5 p, spherical, each with a distinct umbilicus 7. L. hungarica 



e. Spores larger, without umbilicus / 



/. Umber to black, dull; spores 10-12 ft 4. L. minima 



f. Dark purplish brown, shining; spores larger g 



g. Spores 13-17 ft, dark, smooth, on wood 5. L. pusilla 



g. Spores 12-20 ft, with long, detachable, spine-like processes 



partly covering the spore wall; on dung 8. L.fimicola 



