THE ASCOMYCETES OF OHIO.—II 
I 
The Collemaceae* 
BRUCE FINK AND C. AUDREY RICHARDS 
General Considerations 
Hitherto comparatively few descriptions of lichens as fungi have been 
undertaken. In many short diagnoses of lichens, mention of the algal 
hosts has been omitted, and many lichens have been treated thus in¬ 
advertently as fungi. But in more lengthy diagnoses or descriptions, the 
common practice has been to consider the algal host as part of the lichen. 
In order to dispose of typical lichens as fungi, no greater departure from 
the ordinary methods is required than to omit from the descriptions all 
reference to the algal host, the thing which is now often done through 
inadvertency. However, in order to apply to a few families of lichens 
the methods commonly employed in the taxonomic disposition of fungi, a 
method must be followed which diverges considerably from that which 
has been employed by lichenists. 
If it should be found impracticable to treat any group of ascomy- 
cetous lichens as fungi, the whole plan of treatment of ascomycetes 
proposed in the first paper of this series would be impossible of execution. 
Consequently, we have considered, in this second contribution toward a 
knowledge of the ascomycetes of Ohio, a family of lichens, the treatment 
of which as fungi probably involves as wide a departure from the 
method commonly employed by students of lichens as any group that 
could be chosen. In order to demonstrate as early as possible in this 
series of papers how slight are the changes required in order to treat the 
large majority of lichens as fungi, the Lecideaceae, another family of 
lichens, will receive consideration in the next paper of this series. 
The study of the Collemaceae has been made classic through the 
contributions of several botanists. De Bary studied this group and 
ascertained that the chlorophyllous cells are algal (3). Schwendener 
soon extended this view to include the chlorophyllous cells found in all 
* Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory of Miami University—XII. 
35 
