CORAL FUNGI. 



203 



dissolves into numerous branches, which are red tipped. The spores 

 are white, and in this way it may be distinguished from C. formosa, 

 or from Clavaria aurca (Schaeff.), which has yellow or ochre spores, 

 and which has also much the same habit as C. botrytes, and is nearer 

 in size. 



Clavaria pistillaris Linn. Edible. This plant is a characteristic one 

 because of its usually large size and simple form. It is merely a 

 club-shaped body, growing from the ground. It has a wide range, 

 both in Europe and North America, but does not seem to be common, 

 though I have found it more common in the mountain woods of North 

 Carolina than in New York. The plant is 5-20 cm. high, and 1-3 

 cm. thick at the upper end. It is smooth, though often irregularly 

 grooved and furrowed, due probably to unequal tensions in growth. 

 The apex in typical specimens is rounded and blunt. It is dull white 



FIGURE 204. Clavaria mucida. White (natural size). Copyright. 



or tan color or rufescent. The tlesh is white, and very spongy, 

 especially in age, when it is apt to be irregularly fistulose. Figure 

 203 is from plants collected at Blowing Rock, N. C., during 

 September 1899. 



There is what seems to be an abnormal form of this species figured 

 by Schaeffer, Table 290, which Fries separated as a distinct species 

 and placed in the genus Craterellus, one of the Thelephoracea\ and 

 called by him Craterellus pistillaris. This plant has been found at 

 Ithaca, and the only difference between this and the Clavaria pistil- 

 laris L., seems to be in the fact that in Craterellus pistillaris the end 

 is truncate or in some specimens more or less concave. The spores 

 seem to be the same, and the color and general habit of the two 

 plants are the same. It is probably only a form of Clavaria pistillaris. 



Clavaria mucida Pers. This is one of the smallest species of the 

 genus Chrcaria. It grows on rotten wood, and appears throughout 



