Order Hymenomycetes. Tribe Clavati} 



Plate LXII. 



mncEus. 



CLAVARIA PISTILLARIS3 L 



Hercules' Club. 



Gen. Char. Receptacle erect, more or less cylindrical, homogeneous, confluent with the stem. Hymenium 

 occupying the whole surface. 



Spec. Char. Clavaria Pistillaris. SoUtavy, large, from six to twelve inches high, incrassated upwards, obtuse, 

 varying somewhat in form ; smooth, yellowish rufescent or dull orange, dingy brown in decay. 

 Clavaeia pistUlavis, Linnmis, Fries, Berkdey, Bull., Persoon. 



herculeaua, Sowerby, Withering. 



Hab. In shady woods, rare. 



This, the well named Hercules' Club, is the type of the entire genus Clavaria, having suggested a desig- 

 nation which suits but Ul the greater part of the family ; some of them are lite switches, others like bushes, 

 not in the least resembling our idea of what a club should be, which being based upon the tremendous 

 weapon of classic fame as the Greeks sculptured it, are exactly fulfilled by Clavaria Pistillaris ; this latter 

 title is retained because given by Linnaeus prior to the more descriptive one, we may be permitted however 

 to use that in English nomenclature, as it is adopted by our own botanists. Withering and Sowerby. 



About a foot high is the extreme elongation of this Clavaria ; when so tall, it is little swollen at the 

 head, being merely, as it were, stretched out and unduly lengthened, from growing perhaps more deeply 

 embedded in dead leaves &c. than other specimens which have a short contracted portion, a stem-like 

 support to an inflated summit ; these are such as Withering describes ; he compares them to a pear ; in 

 general they greatly resemble a fig lengthened towards the base, but their configuration is variable ; sometimes 

 the upper portion is rotund, at others puckered in and swelling out again, yet never at any time having a 

 head distinct from the stem, the whole plant is confluent within and without, fi'om the very base, where it 

 is gathered into a point. One character alone will prevent its ever being mistaken for any other EngHsh 

 variety, the contents are a snow-white soft homogeneous cottony pith, rending easily from the base upwards, 

 without any cavity whatever, though the pileus splits occasionally in age, at the apex. Clavaria ardenia is 

 hollow. AH the other simple Clavarias as distinguished from the branched, with which of course there can 

 be no confusion, are fasciculate, or tubular, and of much smaller dimensions than C. pistillaris. 



The colour is an ochraceous orange in youth ; the base white with fine down ; as the spores which are 

 situated upon every part of the external covering, become developed, it assumes a peach-like appearance, at 



' From Clava, a Club. 



