II. Epigloeaceae
The family consists of but one genus and one species, Epigloea bactrospora, and, according to Zahlbruckner, further examination is necessary to make certain as to the lichenoid nature of the plant.
Zukal[1038] found the perithecia scattered over the leaves of mosses, and he alleges that hyphae connected with the perithecium were closely associated with the alga, Palmella botryoides, and were causing it no harm. Along with the perithecia he also found minute pycnidia. The “thallus” is of a gelatinous nature and homoiomerous in structure; the perithecia are soft and clear-coloured with many-spored asci and colourless one-septate spores.
The small globose pycnidia contain simple sporophores and acrogenous straight or slightly bent rod-like spores.
| Asci many-spored; spores one-septate | 1. | *Epigloea Zukal. |
III. Verrucariaceae
In all the genera of this family the thallus is crustaceous, and, with very few exceptions, the species are saxicolous or terricolous. The thallus is variable within the crustaceous limits, and may be superficial and very conspicuous, almost imperceptible, or wholly immersed in the substratum. The algal cells are Protococcaceae, and in two of the genera the green cells penetrate the hymenium and grow in rows alongside of the asci. The perithecia are small roundish structures scattered over the thallus, the base immersed, but the upper portion generally projecting. An outer dark-coloured wall surrounds the whole perithecium (entire) or only the upper exposed portion (dimidiate); it opens above by a pore or ostiole more or less prominent.
In some of the genera the paraphyses become dissolved at an early stage, and somewhat similar filaments near the ostiole, termed periphyses, aid in the expulsion of the spores. The spores vary in septation, colour and size, and these variations have served to delimit the genera which have been formed from the original very large genus Verrucaria. The ascus may be 1-, 2-, 4- or 8-spored. In only one genus is it many-spored (Trimmatothele).
The genera are as follows: