Later lichenologists, such as Wallroth[410], looked on the podetia as
advanced stages of the thallus, or as forming a supplementary thallus.
Tulasne[411] described them as branching upright processes from the
horizontal form, and Koerber[412] considered them as the true thallus,
the primary squamule being merely a protothallus. By them and by
succeeding students of lichens the twofold character of the thallus
was accepted until Wainio and Krabbe by their more exact researches
discovered the endogenous origin of the podetium, which they considered
was conclusive evidence of its apothecial character: they claimed that
the primordium of the podetium was homologous with the primordium of the
apothecium. Reinke[413] and Wainio are in accord with Krabbe as to the
probable morphological significance of the podetium, but they both insist
on its modified thalline character. Wainio sums up that: “the podetium
is an apothecial stalk, that is to say an elongation of the conceptacle
most frequently transformed by metamorphosis to a vertical thallus,
though visibly retaining its stalk character.” Sättler[414], one of the
most recent students of _Cladonia_, regards the podetium as evolved with
reference to spore-dissemination, and therefore of apothecial character.
His views are described and discussed in the chapter on phylogeny.
Reinke and others sought for a solution of the problem in _Baeomyces_,
one of the more primitive genera of the Cladoniaceae. The thallus, except
in a few mostly exotic species, scarcely advances beyond the crustaceous
condition; the podetia are short and so varied in character that species
have been assigned by systematists to several different genera. In one
of them, _Baeomyces roseus_, the podetium or stalk originates according
to Nienburg[415] deep down in the medulla of a fertile granule as a
specialized weft of tissue; there is no carpogonium nor trichogyne
formed; the hyphae that grow upward and form the podetium are generative
filaments and give rise to asci and paraphyses. In a second species, _B.
rufus_ (_Sphyridium_), the gonidial zone and outer cortex of a thalline
granule swell out to form a thalline protuberance; the carpogonium arises
close to the apex, and from it branch the generative filaments. Nienburg
regards the stalk of _B. roseus_ as apothecial and as representing an
extension of the proper margin[416] (_excipulum proprium_), that of _B.
rufus_ as a typical vegetative podetium.
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