SPORE-DISCHARGE IN THE CLAVARIEAE 179 



2-4 yu, length when two-celled 12-15 //, but forming chains up to 

 60 yu, long, sometimes bearing one or two minute oval conidia 2/u, long, 

 contents pale orange with one or two clear guttules in each cell. 



Lignicolous, occurring on many different kinds of wood, especially 

 coniferous woods. Common everywhere, often seen in gardens 

 on old pine boards, wooden rails, arbour- work, etc. It is to be 

 found all the year round but is conspicuous only in wet weather. 

 The two forms of fruit-bodies were originally described by Duby 

 and Nees as independent species and have always been so treated 

 by systematists, the basidial form being called Dacryomyces deli- 

 quescens and the oidial form D. stillatus ; but Brefeld has proved 

 that they are nothing but two stages of the same species. They 

 may be found separated from one another on different substrata, 

 or in separate patches side by side on the same substratum, or 

 occasionally intermingled. According to Tulasne some of the 

 yellow fruit-bodies may at times be marked with red patches of 

 the same nature as the red fruit-bodies. 



Spore-discharge in the Clavarieae. In the genus Clavaria, 

 the sporophore is usually erect, and either simple and club-shaped 

 or variously branched. The forms of the fruit-bodies in Clavaria, 

 just as in the Agaricineae, the Polyporeae, and the Hydneae, 

 are significant in respect to the efficiency of the fruit-bodies in 

 producing and liberating spores. 



The hymenium in Clavaria is borne upon the exterior surface 

 of the sporophore, and the erect more or less narrowly club-shaped 

 or much-branched cylindrical forms of the fruit-bodies evidently 

 serve to provide a considerable amount of hymenial surface 

 relatively to the fruit-body mass. A simple, solid, erect, basally 

 supported, more or less cylindrical, terminal branch of a branched 

 Clavaria corresponds to a simple, hollow, vertical, more or less 

 cylindrical, hanging tube of a Polyporus or Boletus. In both, the 

 hymenium is a thin more or less cylindrical layer, but in the Clavaria 

 the solid supporting flesh is within the cylinder and the hymenium 

 looks outwards, whereas in the Polyporus or Boletus the solid 

 supporting flesh is outside the cylinder and the hymenium looks 

 inwards. The cylinders of hymenium are produced successfully 



