Clavarias of the United States and Canada 7 



Hirsntella Pat. Revue Mycol. 14: 69. 1892. (=Matruchotia 

 Boulanger, Revue Gen. Bot. 5: 401. 1893).* 



"Receptacle filiform, erect, fleshy, waxy or tough, simple or 

 branched. Flesh filamentous, rather compact, composed of a 

 small number of hyphae, parallel and septate. Hymenium sep- 

 arated into solitary parts, scattered over all the parts of the re- 

 ceptacle; basidia 1-2-4-spored, generally with elongated sterig- 

 mata ; cystidia none ; spores hyaline, ovoid, smooth. Small species, 

 growing on dead organic matter. 



"This genus includes five or six European and two American 

 species. Hirsntella entomophila Pat. with one-spored basidia 

 rises from a hypochnoid layer which surrounds the bodies of dead 

 Coleopteras at the Equator; H. setosa Pk. (Pterula), which grows 

 in the United States on old polypores, is a tough species with 2- 

 spored basidia and extremely elongated sterigmata, sometimes 

 septate or branched (abnormally) ; H. gracilis (Desm.) is more 

 delicate and grows on rotten weeds around Paris; H. varians 

 (Boul.) has been observed in laboratory cultures. 



"Hirsutclla, very distinct in its discontinuous hymenium, is 

 the lowest form of the Clavaria type ; it has a marked tendency to 

 take the hypochnoid arrangement and resembles certain hypho- 

 mycetes in its forms with irregular sterigmata." 



Baumanniclla P. Hennings. Engler's Bot. Jahrb. 23 : 543. 

 1897. Exactly like Physalacria, except that the spores are brown. 



"Only one species is known, B. Togocnsis P. Henn. from 

 tropical Africa, which has one-spored basidia and rather gelati- 

 nous receptacle." 



CLAVARIACEAE 



Plants erect, simple and slender or club-shaped, or more or 

 less forked or branched in an antler-like or coral-like or dendroid 

 manner, or (in Pterula) composed of very many hair-like branches 

 from a simple base; size varying from simple little slender hairs 

 or rods to large, heavy, much branched masses; texture soft, 

 fleshy and brittle or waxy, or toughish and pliable; hymenium 

 covering most of the plant, usually all except a more or less well 

 defined part of the base or stem, which may fade imperceptibly 

 into the upper part or be more or less sharply delimited by a change 

 in size or color. In some species of Clavaria there are sterile lines 

 or areas here and there on the plant, particularly in the forks, 



* According to Speare the original species of Hirsntella is really a Hyphomycete 

 (see Petch in Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc. 9: 93. 1923). 



