The fungal part of the organism nearly always consists of a number of the Discomycetes or Pyrenomycetes, while the algal portion is a member of the Schizophyceae (Cyanophyceae or Blue-green Algae) or of the Green Algae; only in a very few cases is the fungus a member of the Basidiomycetes.
Glycogen, a substance related to starch and sugar, is found in the Fungi and Cyanophyceae as a food reserve.
In the Cyanophyceae the contents of the cell are differentiated into a central colorless region, and a peripheral layer containing the chlorophyll and other coloring matters together with granules of a reserve substance called cyanophycin.
X.; The Cell Structure of the Cyanophyceae, Proc. Roy.
The foreign algae are always members of the Cyanophyceae and on the same individual and even in the same cephalodium more than one type of gonidium may be found.
Gonidia always belonging to the Cyanophyceae, Lichinaceae, Ephebaceae, Collemaceae, Pyrenopsidaceae.
Cyanophyceae, or Blue-green Algae.
- Cyanophyceae, variously magnified.
The nature of the contents of the cells of Cyanophyceae has given rise to considerable controversy.
Notwithstanding the absence of chlorophyll, and the consequent parasitic or saprophytic habit, Bacteriaceae agree in so many morphological features with Cyanophyceae that the affinity can hardly be doubted.
A census of the Cyanophyceae with their two main groups is given below: I.
Unknown in Cyanophyceae and Phoeophyceae, known only in Bangiaceae and Nemalion among Rhodophyceae, they are of frequent occurrence among Chlorophyceae, excepting Characeae.
To consider the Cyanophyceae excludingacteriaceae from algae altogether, notwith g g g ?
Standing their acknowledged morphological affinity with Cyanophyceae, or, in recognition of the incongruity of effecting such a separation, the whole group of the Schizophyta - that is to say, the Cyanophyceae in the narrow sense, together with Bacteriaceae, is included or excluded together.
In the case of the freshwater algae, however, belonging to the Chlorophyceae and Cyanophyceae, although they required to be immersed during the vegetative period, the reproductive cells are often capable of resisting a considerable degree of desiccation, and in this condition are dispersed through great distances by various agencies.
In the two last-mentioned characters and in their manner of division the bacteria resemble Schizophyceae (Cyanophyceae or blue-green algae), and the two groups of Schizophyceae and Schizomycetes are usually united in the class Schizophyta, to indicate the generally received view that most of the typical bacteria have been derived from the Cyanophyceae.
The existence of ciliated micrococci together with the formation of endospores - structures not known in the Cyanophyceae - reminds us of the flagellate Protozoa, e.g.
Of Cyanophyceae, as we should expect, the Palaeozoic remains are very doubtful.
A genus Zonatrichites, compared with species of Cyanophyceae, has been described as a Calcareous alga from Liassic limestones of Silesia.