Ohio Biological Survey, Bull. 10, Vol. 11, No. 6 / The Ascomycetes of Ohio IV and V

It was stated in the second paper of this series that the disposition of the Lecideaceae in an early paper of the series would show what slight changes are needed in treating lichens as we treat other ascomycetes. It is hoped that this paper has accomplished this in phraseology intelligible to those acquainted with the present-day language of systematic mycology.
The Lecideaceae form a well-defined family of lichens, the affinities of which seem plainly marked. In apothecial structure, and so far as known, in structure of the sexual reproductive areas, the family seems to be closely related to the mainly non-lichen Patellariaceae and to such lichens as the Gyalectaceae , the Lecanactidaceae , the Collemaceae , the Baeomycetaceae , and the Cladoniaceae .
Following the commonly-accepted theory that the lichens have been evolved from non-algicolous fungi, the origin of the Lecideaceae and related lichens from Patellaria -like ancestors is a reasonable supposition, though the relative rank of the various related families named in the last paragraph is not easy to decide. Within the Lecideaceae , the line of evolution seems to have been in the direction of a well-developed exciple and from simpler to more complex spores. With the advance in these two directions has gone a slightly increased development of the thallus.
The writer has collected the Lecideaceae , with other fungi, in Butler County for fifteen years, and has worked for the Ohio Biological Survey in Preble, Warren, Highland, Fairfield, Adams, Hocking, and Lake counties. Besides these collections made by the writer, a few specimens were examined from Champaign, Hamilton, Wayne, Morgan, Madison, Muskingum, Franklin, Vinton, and Summit counties. Of the 37 species treated in this paper, 24 had not been reported from Ohio previously.

Biatorella De Not. Giorn. Bot. Ital. 21. 192. 1846.
Thallus granulose to verrucose and subareolate, sometimes inconspicuous and evanescent; apothecia minute to middle-sized, adnate or more or less immersed, exciple usually prominent and persistent, but sometimes becoming covered, disk flat to convex; hypothecium and hymenium pale to brown; spores simple, hyaline, minute, numerous in each ascus.