that period; wherever thctouchrubs off the bloom-like spores, cinnamon-brown marks appear, beiiigthe denuded 

 epidermis ; this reddish-brown hue the whole plant of course assumes, if much and rudely handled, yet as 

 the spores remain in the sheltered parts, a purplish clay-colour is given by their presence, and it seems as if 

 much more variegated in hue than is really the case ; the summit is always, even at the last, a richer yellow 

 than the sides. It is extremely persistent and may be kept a fortnight after gathering, provided it is shut 

 up in a vasculum with a little slightly damped moss. On compressing it, the substance is firm and elastic, 

 not rigid, resembling a little stuffed bag of doe-skin leather ; it gi-ows laxer with age, but there is no 

 tendency to deliquescent decay ; the whole plant idtimately shrinks and wrinkles into a very small compass. 

 It is not viscid at any period of growth, even when moist. EJrombholz says it is esculent ; in England the 

 fact is of little importance, it is so rare that when found the last thing we should think of doing would be 

 to devour it ; the smell is not unpleasant, but the flavour is very bitter, and the cottony texture does not 

 imply agreeable mastication. It is not the only bitter Clavaria : C. Fimformis, the bright yellow one, is in 

 some situations intensely bitter ; Vittadini's opinion therefore that aU Clavarias are good for food, must be 

 taken with a qualification, and applies probably only to the Coralloid varieties. These grow in branched 

 groups like marine productions much more than any of the usual woodland plants ; after heavy rains in 

 September, 1848, masses each proceeding from one thick-stemmed base, were gathered in the woods near 

 Farnborough (Kent) which measured eight inches across ; they consisted of innumerable ramified branchlets 

 of the most delicate silvery violet near the base with snow-white extremities ; to this elegant plant no 

 pencil coidd do justice on a wliite ground, we therefore allude to it in this place as it cannot have one to 

 itself : it is Clavaria Coralloides. Clavaria Cinerea resembles it in mode of growth, but is darker and 

 less elegant ; C. Pratensis, a common one, is buff-yellow, of lower growth, fastigiate and tufted : these are all 

 esculent, but the only one we can thorouglily recommend as worth cooking is C. Ruc/osa, wliich is little 

 branched, sometimes not at all, white or nearly so, like wax, thicker above than below, longitudinally 

 wrinkled, and the outline of its unbranched forms much resembling in miniatui'e our Clavaria Pistillaris. 



