180 Clavarias of the United States and Canada 



On account of its change to green, we have taken the above to 

 represent the typical C. abietina, although the usual difficulties are 

 met with in comparing our plants with European descriptions. 

 In his original description Persoon says that C. abietina grows in 

 pine woods, is at first sordid yellow to alutaceous, becoming green- 

 ish; base white-tomentose ; spores saffron, etc. In his Com- 

 mentatio, p. 47 (178), he has a fuller description of C. abietina 

 giving the stalk as 4 lines thick, form obconic, always in pines, 

 color sordid yellow to alutaceous then greenish. The species is 

 represented in Persoon's herbarium by two plants in good con- 

 dition which may be considered as the types. The plants are about 

 2-4 cm. high, the spores 3.5-4.5 x 5-8;j.. There is no tint of green 

 on the dried plants. In size they more closely resemble our large 

 plant of pines which in America has no tint of green. Two other 

 sheets from France (Chaillet, coll.) so determined are apparently 

 the same. 



Fries describes C. abietina as having the trunk white-tomentose 

 and growing in fir woods, while C. flaccida, he says, grows in pine 

 woods and is much more delicate than the former. This is the 

 opposite of our observations on the American plants, the larger 

 plant with a distinct stalk growing among pine needles, the smaller, 

 more delicate plant occurring under hemlock and spruce. The 

 carelessness of Fries's study of Clavarias is shown in many cases. 

 At Kew are three collections from him determined as C. abietina 

 which represent three different species. One is apparently cor- 

 rectly determined, another is C. apiculata, and another C. cristata. 

 Greville's plate 117 referred to by Fries (Epicr., p. 574) does not 

 look like our green plant of hemlock, but is big and more stalked 

 like our form of pines ; a slight greenish tint is shown on one side 

 of his figure. The Flora Danica figure, also referred to by Fries, 

 is likewise a large plant with a good stalk. Gillet's figure is 

 smaller than the others but shows a stalk. 



In the Curtis Herbarium is a collection labelled C. abietina 

 from Fries (through Berkeley). The plant is like ours as de- 

 scribed above, about 4 cm. high and 3 cm. wide, well branched 

 from the ground. The spores also are exactly the same, minutely 

 warted, elliptic to pip-shaped, 3.7-4.4 x 6.6-8.5[x. The species is 

 not represented in the Fries Herbarium at Upsala. 



