36 Clavarias of the United States and Canada 



average longer than in other collections, but it is probable that 

 the difference would be reduced if good spore prints of the others 

 were measured. As in the case of C. miicida, this species is in- 

 timately associated with algae and may with good reason be con- 

 sidered a lichen. Our Chapel Hill plants grow on ground cov- 

 ered with several sorts of blue-green algae, the most common 

 being Gleocapsa, with which are mixed in good quantity an Oscil- 

 latoria and the protonema of the moss Pogonatum. Our figures 

 (pi. 92, figs. 5-7) show the algae with the Clavaria mycelium in 

 close contact, in one case with finger-like processes wefting the 

 algal cell as in many lichens. 



We have examined a northern collection of C. vernalis (Re- 

 liquiae Farlowianae, No. 311) and find that in it also the tips are 

 quite sterile, as shown in longitudinal section. See the genus Ccra- 

 tella (p. 6). In the Schweinitz Herbarium is a pill box of mossy 

 earth labelled C. vernalis, but on examination with a lens we could 

 find no trace of a Clavaria. Note that while Schweinitz says "on 

 bare earth" his specimen shows the same mossy soil of other col- 

 lections. Peck's type plants of C. clavata from Sand Lake, N. Y., 

 are in good condition. The little thick clubs, which arise from 

 densely mossy soil, are dull ochraceous in the dry state with broad 

 tips which are often whitened with abundant crystals. We could 

 find no spores on them, but in another good collection from Lake 

 Pleasant spores were plentiful and we find them to be smooth, 

 rod-elliptic, 2.6 x 6-6. 5 [Jt.. Basidia 5.5fji thick. In his description 

 of C. clavata, Peck mentioned the green, confervoid stratum from 

 which the plants arise; and, as shown by his labels, he later con- 

 sidered his species the same as C. vernalis. 



A collection from Newfield, N. J., at the New York Botanical 

 Garden (Ellis) looks the same, and we find spores about the same, 

 2 x 5[jl. The following notes accompany the specimen : "Spores 

 oblong, smooth; base of the stem white where not covered with 

 the green confervoid growth which overspreads the bare damp 

 soil from which the plants arise . . . with Drosera rotundifolia. 

 Club-shaped above, about ]/ 2 in. high, yellow (rather pale yellow) 

 above." The word confervoid is used here probably in a rather 

 loose sense. On examining the earth we find numerous Chloro- 

 coccus-Wko. cells and apparently a little moss protenema. These 



