174 Clavarias of the United States and Canada 



Clavaria decurrens Pers. Myc. Europ. 1 : 164. 1822. 

 ?C. muscigena Pers. Myc. Europ. 1 : 169. 1822. 

 ?C. crispula Fr. Syst. Myc. 1 : 470. 1832. 

 C. curta Fr. Monog. Hymen. Suec. 2 : 281. 1857. 

 C.pusilla Pk. Buf. Soc. Nat. Sci. 1: 62. 1873. (Also in 

 Rept. N. Y. St. Mus. 25 : 83. 1873). (Not C. pusilla Pers., 

 which is a Pistillaria; or C. pusilla Quel, which is 

 Nyctalis). 



Plates 66, 88, and 92 



Plants small and delicate, about 1.5-3 cm. high and 1.2-3 cm. 

 broad; stem distinct, 5-15 mm. long, 1.5-7 mm. thick, terete or 

 grooved or flattened, glabrous, toughish, not rooting, but soon 

 disappearing into the fibrous mycelium ; branches rather few and 

 open, spreading, mostly flattened and angular, tips small, sub- 

 ulate, acute, spreading; color when fresh a dull creamy white all 

 over except for pinkish stains that are apt to be present on the 

 stem; in age and in drying becoming olivaceous-yellow or about 

 drab. Flesh pliable, tasteless and odorless, turning deep purplish 

 pink when bruised; threads of flesh 1.6-8[J. thick, average about 4\l 

 thick, loosely packed and much intertwined, clamp connections 

 present. 



Spores (of C. and B. No. 120) deep buffy yellow (about 

 chamois of Ridgway), pip-shaped, minutely tuberculate, 

 2.3-3 x 4.5-6jju Basidia 4-spored, 4-4.8ja thick, hymenium 35AO[u 

 thick, containing very many included spores which show that the 

 hymenium has increased in thickness by proliferation. There are 

 also a great number of spores encrusting the surface. 



This small plant which we are taking as typical is known with 

 certainty in America only from New York, in damp, shady places 

 under hemlock and pine. For the southern variety see page 177. 



A well marked species, easily recognized by its small size and 

 habitat, by change to pink when bruised, peculiar color when dry, 

 flattened and angular branches and tips, and by the spores. By 

 the authentic plants of C. decurrens in the Persoon Herbarium, the 

 American plants are shown to be the same. His plants are about 

 5 cm. high, and the spores are minutely rough, about pip-shaped, 

 2.5-3.5 x 4.5-6[x. Our collections are certainly the same as C. 

 pusilla, as the dried plants look exactly like the type and like an- 

 other better collection from Westport, N. Y. (determined by 



