184 Clavarias of the United States and Canada 



Clavaria abictina. Small, non-virescent form. 

 C. flaccida Fr. Syst. Myc. 1 : 471. 1821. 



Plates 70 and 88 



We do not find it possible to make any satisfactory distinction 

 between C. abictina and C. flaccida as understood by Fries and 

 other mycologists. Small delicate plants of the C. flaccida form 

 may turn green and large, much stouter plants may not. As men- 

 tioned earlier, our largest American form occurs in pines, the 

 only habitat given for C. abietina by Persoon, and does not turn 

 green so far as we have met with it. Mixed with these are smaller 

 forms which connect directly with the typical C. flaccida. Any 

 delicate form of C. abictina that is not green would be referred to 

 C. flaccida, and it certainly has not been shown that the green 

 change has any specific value in this little group. We are there- 

 fore considering the delicate, non-virescent plant called C. flaccida 

 by Fries, as the flaccida form of C. abietina. Typical plants of 

 this nature found by us at Vaughns, N. Y., may be described as 

 follows : 



Plants small, about 1.5-3 cm. high and 0.6-2.7 cm. broad, 

 branched at or near the ground, branches smooth, terete or more 

 or less flattened, dense or rather open, the tips very numerous, 

 delicate, pointed and concolorous; color light creamy ochraceous 

 all over, or at times dull flesh color in youth; towards or after 

 maturity the basal half a deeper dull ochraceous ; in drying becom- 

 ing deep ochraceous all over. Flesh pliable, tender, not changing 

 when bruised; taste slightly mouldy and at times a little peppery 

 in plants from deciduous woods; odor faintly similar; mycelium 

 white, stringy, conspicuous. 



Spores deep ochraceous, pip-shaped, minutely warted, 

 3-3.7x5-7.7^. Basidia 4.4-5. 5f/. thick; hymenium 45-60[x thick, 

 in most places with a distinct row of embedded spores in the center, 

 indicating a renewal by proliferation ; threads of flesh variable in 

 thickness, most about 3.7[j. thick, parallel and closely packed just 

 under the hymenium, irregular and loosely packed in the center of 

 plant, clamp connections present. 



Abundant under hemlock and more rarely in frondose woods 

 in the northern states, and to be expected in our higher southern 

 mountains. See C. abietina for other notes. 



