28 Clavarias of the United States and Canada 



Clavaria argillacea Pers. Comm., p. 74 (206). 1797. 

 ?C. flcEvip.es Pers. Neues Mag. Bot. 1 : 117. 1794. 

 C. ericetorum Pers. Obs. Myc. 2 : 60. 1799. 

 C. pallescens Pk. Bull. N. Y. St. Mus. 131 : 34. 1909. 

 C. obtusata Boud. Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr. 33 : 12, pi. 4, fig. 2. 

 1917. 



Plate 81 



We have not yet seen this in the fresh state and have found 

 it only twice in American collections (as C. pallescens Pk.)*. It 

 is apparently a rare species, and seems nearest C. helveola, but is 

 easily distinguished from that (and from C. hit co-alba) by the 

 more distinct stem, thicker and more clavate form, and larger 

 spores. Clavaria ericetorum is represented in Per soon' s her- 

 barium by two lots of single and cespitose plants. The thickened 

 clubs have slender, distinct stalks, and the appearance is as usual 

 in European herbaria. We were not able to find any spores on 

 them. Clavaria argillacea is not represented, but there is little 

 doubt that they are the same. In the Kew Herbarium plants la- 

 belled C: argillacea from Brandenburg (Sydow, Mycotheca ger- 

 manica, No. 453) agree fully with the English plants described 

 below. The spores are smooth, oblong-elliptic, 5-7x9-12jx; ba- 

 sidia 4-spored, about 6.8^ thick; hymenium about 55(x thick. 

 Threads of flesh up to 18[x thick in center of the plant, becoming 

 much smaller just under the hymenium. A collection from 

 France (Boudier) in Bresadola's herbarium also seems the same; 

 spores 4.5-5.5 x9-ll[x. We have examined plants kindly sent us 

 by Dr. Cotton and compared them with Peck's type of C. palles- 

 cens and find them to agree. In the dried state they are quite 

 unlike C. helveola. The following description is from Cotton and 

 Wakefield (Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc. 6: 191. 1919) : 



"Plants simple, gregarious, 2-5 cm. high, pale greenish-yellow, 

 fragile; smell none, taste like tallow. Clubs cylindrical or flat- 

 tened, with one or more grooves, surface often minutely chan- 

 nelled, apex blunt. Stem distinct, yellowish. Internal structure 



* In the Underwood collection in the New York Botanical Garden are several plants 

 pressed on a card and labelled C. argillacea. No locality is given and they may be 

 European. They look like the European plants of that name and have about the same 

 spores, 4-5 x 7.4-8. S/x. 



