52 Clavarias of the United States and Canada 



Our reference of this plant to C. purpurea follows a compari- 

 son with European collections. A careful microscopic study of a 

 plant from Romell, Sweden, determined as C. purpurea, shows a 

 close agreement with our No. 4860; basidia about 6.6[x thick, 4- 

 spored, the spores smooth, long, 3.7-4.8 x 8-11 (a; threads of flesh 

 up to 10[/. thick near center; color when dry blackish above or 

 nearly all over with the surface of a peculiar plush-like character 

 which under the lens looks like sponge. Dried plants of No. 

 4860 have the same surface, a condition which appears only after 

 drying. In this species the dried plants are always badly col- 

 lapsed. The Swedish plants, like ours, grew in coniferous woods, 

 and this seems to be true for the species wherever found. At 

 Kew are two collections of C. purpurea that are exactly like those 

 from Romell. They are Rabenhorst- Winter, Fungi Europaei, No. 

 2930 from Finland in pine woods (Karsten) and F. F. Karsten 

 Exs. No. 438. Others so named are very doubtfully the same, 

 and Cotton and Wakefield's description of C. purpurea may be 

 based on another species, as they give the spores broader and short- 

 er than in any example we have seen. 



American representatives of this species are rarely seen in 

 herbaria. In Albany is a collection from New Brunswick de- 

 termined as C. purpurea that agrees with the above. The plants 

 are lightly cespitose (3-4 together) or single, 1-3 mm. thick, 5-8 

 cm. high, tapering at both ends, acute, very hollow and often com- 

 pressed, then up to 5 mm. wide in center, base white, slightly 

 scurfy or nearly smooth. Color in dry state smoky brown, tend- 

 ing to become brown at the tips or at any point. Spores 3.8-4.5 x 

 8.5-13(1., rarely up to 15.5f/.. 



Peck's C. nebulosa is this species. We have examined the type 

 and find the spores to be smooth, oblong-elliptic, with small eccen- 

 tric mucro, 3.6-4 x 7.4-1 Ija. Basidia 5.5-6.5(1. thick, 4-spored; hy- 

 menium about 45[x thick, without crystals ; threads of flesh parallel 

 in longitudinal section, up to 15[x thick in center, smaller just under 

 the hymenium, constricted at the joints, no clamp connections 

 seen. 



