Key to the Families of the Cribrariales
| A. Fructification plasmodiocarpous scattered as if made up of the segments of the plasmodial net | Liceacæ |
| B. Fructification of distinct and separate sporangia, long stipitate, opening by a delicate operculum at the top | Orcadellaceæ |
| C. Fructification æthalioid, the sporangia generally more or less tubular, often prismatic by mutual pressure; opening by rupture of the apex, the lateral walls entire | Tubiferaceæ |
| D. Fructification æthalioid, the sporangia ill defined, their walls more or less perforate, frayed, or dissipated, forming a pseudo-capillitium, | Reticulariaceæ |
| E. Fructification of distinct and separate sporangia, the walls more or less reticulately perforate especially above | Cribrariaceæ |
A. LICEACEÆ
A single genus,—
1. Licea (Schrader) Rost.
- 1797. Licea Schrader, Nov. Gen. Plant., p. 16, in part.
- 1875. Licea (Schrader) Rost., Mon., p. 218.
Sporangia plasmodiocarpous, looped, irregular, or distinct, sessile, and regularly rounded or elliptical; the 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. There is absolutely no capillitium nor anything like it, simply a mass of spores surrounded by thin membranous walls. The spores range from pale olive, colorless under the lens, through various shades of brown to dusky almost black in L. pusilla. Schrader included the Tubifera species.
Key to the Species of Licea
| A. Plainly plasmodiocarpous | 1. L. variabilis | ||
| B. Opening by regular segments. | |||
| 1. Segments two only | 2. L. biforis | ||
| 2. Segments several. | |||
| i. Spores brown | 3. L. minima | ||
| ii. Spores dusky olive | 4. L. pusilla | ||