Clavarias of the United States and Canada 149 



Clavaria Strasseri Bres. in Strass. Pilzflora Sontagberg 2: 

 3. 1900. 



Plate 87 



Plant 7-10 cm. high, 4-8 cm. broad, stem stout, distinct, more 

 or less rooting, white or stained with tan ; branches rather upright 

 and open, angles spreading or at times acute, twigs ending in 

 rather acute tips, color light creamy tan, the tips concolorous, 

 deeper cinnamon-tan in age, the tips dull brown in withering. 

 Flesh white, soft, fibrous, not very brittle; taste bitterish, odor 

 faintly of old ham. 



Spores (of No. 2897) yellowish buff, oblong-amygdaliform 

 (approaching peach kernel shape), smooth, 4.8-6.7 x 14-18. 5[x. 

 Basidia 7.4-9. 3[x thick, 4-spored; hymenium 90-110;/. thick; hyphae 

 4-10|/. thick, wavy, clamp connections present. 



Closely related to C. obtusissima, C. secunda, and C. rufcscens, 

 but separated from all of them by the very large spores, and from 

 the last by absence of wine colored stains. The odor is different 

 from that of C. secunda, but like that of the other two. We have 

 called this C. Strasseri because in appearance it is just like a plant 

 so named from Bresadola in the New York Botanical Garden, 

 and principally because the peculiar large spores are identical in 

 both. Bresadola gives the spores as 4-6 xl2-16(x. In the above 

 specimens from him we find them to be 5-6.6 x 1 1.8-15.5^-. Others 

 in his herbarium (Sontagberg, Strasser) have spores 3.8-5 x 

 13-lSfjL. 



Except for the spores the relationship of this to C. obtus- 

 issima is so close that it might be best to consider the former a 

 large-spored variety of the latter. The plant has been recognized 

 so far in this country only in Chapel Hill. 



Clavaria incurvata Morg. (Journ. Cm. Soc. Nat. Hist. 11: 

 88, pi. 2, fig. 2. 1888) must remain doubtful as Prof. T. H. Mac- 

 Bride writes us that the type is not represented in the Morgan Her- 

 barium at the University of Iowa, and no authentic specimen is 

 known. The figure somewhat resembles C. Strasseri. From its 

 spores, Ramaria Rieli would seem to fall here. It is evidently an 

 abnormal, dropsical form in any case. 



