It may be regarded as derived from a wholly dependent sporogonium not unlike that of some of the simpler Bryophyta; the latter are assumed to have arisen from primitive Algal forms, in which, as the first step in the interpolation of the second generation in the life cycle, the fertilized ovum gave rise to a group of swarm spores, each of which developed into a new sexual plant.
Some forms, however, such as " Sarcina," have their algal analogues in Palmellaceae among the green algae, while Thaxter's group of Myxobacteriaceae suggests a relationship with the Myxornycetes.
The algal fungi, Phycomycetes, are obviously derived from the Green Algae, while the remaining Fungi, the Eumycetes, appear to have sprung from the same stock as the Rhodophyceae.
The soredia are the most successful method of reproduction in lichens, for not only are some forms nearly always without spore-formation and in others the spores laregly abortive, but in all cases the spore represents only the fungal component of the thallus, and its success in the development of a new lichen-thallus depends on the chance meeting, at the time of germination, with the appropriate algal component.
In these forms gonidia are found in connexion with the young fruit; such algal cells undergo numerous divisions becoming very small in size and penetrating into the hymenium among the asci and paraphyses.