ae 
2 CONIOCARPINE [SPHINCTRINA 
mature lie loose in the apothecium, like powder or dust, forming ~ 
a mazeedium. 
The Coniocarpinee are distinguished from all other lichens by the 
peculiar form of the mature fruit. Some of the genera and species - 
are parasitic on other lichens; others have no recognizable thallus. 
Such forms are closely connected with fungi and have been classified 
as such by some mycologists (see Rehm in Rabenhorst’s Krypt. Fl. 
i. 3 (1887-96), p. 382). The British species have all been included 
among lichens. There are two British Natural Orders :— 
Thallus crustaceousS................- i. CALICIACE.: 
Thallus foliose or fruticose........ ii. SPH22ROPHORACE®. 
OrverR I. CALICIACEA. 
Thallus effuse, thin, granular-crustaceous, often obsolete. 
Algal cells Chlorophyceze (Protococcus, Plewrococcus, or Stichococcus). 
Fruit usually a stalked, top-shaped or globose apothecium 
(capitulum), the stalk, when present, simple or sometimes 
branched, without gonidia; asci dissolving early, the spores 
forming a powdery mass (mazedium), mostly dark-coloured. 
The Caliciacee, as here understood, include genera and species 
with stalked and sessile apothecia. In most cases, the algal con- 
stituents of the thallus take no part in fruit-formation ; in one genus 
only (Cypheliwm), a thalline margin is present in some of the species. 
The following genera are British : 
Thallus wanting or doubtful, mostly parasitic on 
POTVUBATOO. o0 ac watete von letecw a wandes Teeuwen oe 1. Sphinctrina. 
Thallus granular, crustaceous, sometimes obsolete. 
Apothecia stalked. 
Spores spherical, simple. 
Spores dark in the mass.................4. 2. Cheenotheca. 
Spores yellow in the mass................. 3. Coniocybe. 
Spores oblong, septate, dark-coloured. 
Spores 1-septate................0.008 eee 4. Calicium. 
Spores 38- or more-septate ..............06 5. Stenocybe. 
Apothecia sessile. 
Spores oblong, septate. 
Spores 1- or more-septate, dark- 
COLOULE <5. cc. peenscesscer cer esse eemneene 6. Cyphelium. 
1. SPHINCTRINA Fr. Syst. Orb, p. 120 (1825) (as a genus of 
Fungi) ; De Not. in Giorn. Bot. Ital. ii. p. 314 (1846). (Pl. 1.) 
Thallus doubtful or none proper. Apothecia small, globose- 
turbinate, sessile or shortly stalked, somewhat shining, black, 
with a thick connivent proper margin ; asci subpersistent ; spores 
black in the mass, simple (rarely l-septate), blackish. Spermo- 
gones immersed ; spermatia long, acicular, bent. 
The species of this genus are mostly parasitic on the thallus of 
Pertusaria or other lichens. The entire genus has been included by 
Rehm (in Rabenhorst’s Krypt. Fl. i. 3, p. 889 (1887-96) ) in Pezizacex, 
suborder Dermateacee. 
