1924] 



BURT — THE THELEPHORACEAE OF NORTH AMERICA. XIII 29 



1891. — A. alhido-carneum Massee, Linn. Soc, Bot. Jour. 25: 

 155. pi. 46' f' 8, 9. 1889. 'Not T helephor a albido-carnea^chweimtz, 

 Am. Phil. Soc. Trans. N. S. 4: 169. 1832.—^. pallidum Morgan, 

 Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist. Jour. 18: 38. pL l,f. 6. 1895; Sacc. 

 Syll. Fung. 14: 223. 1899. 



Type: in Kew Herb, and Curtis Herb. 



Fructification effused, thin, spongy, dry, avellaneous to cin- 

 namon-drab within, the margin fibrillose-floccose, paler; hymen- 

 ium even, pulverulent, becoming paUid where well-fruited; 

 structure in section 150-300 [i thick, composed of thin- walled, 

 loosely arranged, hyaline hyphae 2-23/^ [x in diameter and of 

 conspicuous, colored, thick-walled, rigid, stellate organs with 3-7, 

 usually about 5, unbranched rays 15-60 [j. long and 3-3^ [l in 

 diameter, distributed throughout the fructification; cystidia 

 (gloeocystidia?) fusoid, often sharp-pointed, not incrusted, 30-45 

 X 8-12 [I, protruding up to 25 \x above the basidia; basidia simple, 

 with 4 sterigmata; spores white in spore collections, spherical, 

 becoming echinulate, with the spore body 4-5 [x in diameter. 



On decaying wood, earth, and on outside of a flower pot. 

 Canada to Louisiana, in Washington, California, Mexico, West 

 Indies, and Japan. July to March. Widely distributed but not 

 abundant. 



The color of this species varies somewhat with the presence 

 and degree of development of the hymenium; young fructifica- 

 tions still lacking basidia or with only few scattered basidia have 

 a tawny color due to the numerous colored stellate bodies which 

 are present in the surface of the fructification. As the hymenium 

 becomes continuous in patches or over the whole surface it con- 

 ceals the stellate organs and shows as a whitish or pallid pellicle 

 in the regions where developed, with comparatively few colored 

 rays protruding through it. The type specimen of A. pallidum 

 has the hymenium fully developed. Under my method of stain- 

 ing sections with eosin and then preserving in glycerine mounts, 

 the fusoid organs in the hymenium are what I understand as non- 

 incrusted cystidia containing little granular matter, a great deal 

 of cell sap, and with such thin walls that they collapse in the 

 glycerine preparations. Bourdot has a special reagent and method 

 which he employs as a test for gloeocystidia, and he has decided 

 that these organs are gloeocystidia. 



