Sporangia furnished with rigid, unpolished stipes, blending above with the substance of the thick unpolished walls; the operculum thin, delicate, membranaceous.
A single species,—
1. Orcadella operculata Wingate.
[Plate XII.], Fig. 11.
- 1889. Orcadella operculata Wingate, Proc. Phil. Acad., p. 280.
Sporangia scattered, gregarious, ellipsoidal, ovoid, obconical or nearly globose, dull brown or blackish, the wall simple, thick, coarse, at the top replaced by a delicate, thin, yellowish, iridescent, lustrous or vernicose membrane which forms a circular, smooth, or wrinkled lid, soon deciduous; stipe of varying height, rough from deposit of plasmodic refuse; spores, in mass yellowish, globose, smooth, 8–11 µ.
This curious little species, well described by its discoverer, appears to be very rare. At least it is seldom collected; overlooked by reason of its minuteness. It is a stipitate licea, or a lid-covered cribraria; perhaps nearer the former. It affects the bark of species of Quercus, and seems to be associated there with Clastoderma debaryanum. N. A. F., 2497.
Pennsylvania, Maine.
C. TUBIFERACEÆ
Fructification æthalioid or of distinct sporangia; sporangia well defined, tubular, often prismatic by mutual pressure, seated on a common, well-marked hypothallus, at length dehiscent by the irregular rupture of the peridium, in typical cases at the apex, its walls remaining then otherwise entire; capillitial threads in No. 3, only.