Clavarias of the United States and Canada 193 



thus very hard to find. In drying the plant remains this color or 

 turns a somewhat lighter color (Buckthorn brown), the same color 

 as dried plants of C. abietina. The stem surface below the 

 hymenium is closely white-tomentose where protected in angles, 

 etc., but where rubbed by soil or ringers the color is dull brownish 

 lavender or purple. Flesh firm, but very tender, pure white at 

 first, but immediately turning to lavender-brown when cut; taste 

 mildly acid-bitterish and after a few minutes astringent; 

 hyphae 4-7.4(1. thick, roughly parallel, very closely packed and 

 having anastomosing connections between adjacent ones. 



Spores (of No. 1186) antique brown, obovate, 6.3 x 12[x, exclu- 

 sive of the spines, covered except at the curved point with long 

 sharp spicules about 1.5p. long. Basidia 2-spored, about IOji. 

 thick; sterigmata stout, 7jx long; hymenium (of No. 4407) about 

 60ij. thick, multiple and up to 4 layers thick. 



Common in f rondose woods near upland branches, etc. This 

 remarkably fine species, the darkest colored of our large Chapel 

 Hill Clavarias, and one of the most handsome and striking, was 

 first described by Peck from plants sent him from Maryland. 

 Clavaria spiculospora, which is the same thing, was described by 

 Professor Atkinson from plants collected by us in Chapel Hill. 

 While common this plant is often overlooked as the color is very 

 like that of the dead leaves in which it grows. It often happens 

 that only the tips are exposed above the leaves. It usually grows 

 in cool damp woods among decaying leaves, but we have also found 

 it at the base of an oak stump in a lawn. We have not tested the 

 edible qualities of this species, but Mr. Braendle, who first col- 

 lected it in Maryland, reported it as edible when pickled. 



Lachnocladium giganteum Pat. (Journ. de Bot. 3 : 34, pi. 1, fig. 

 1. 1889) is certainly very near, and the spores and basidia are in- 

 distinguishable ; but fine authentic specimens in the Paris Museum 

 from French Guiana while large are distinctly more slender, as is 

 also shown in the figure, and in the dry state they are more brittle 

 and have a different taste from C. grandis. The spores are 7.4-9 x 

 11-14.8[/., strongly spinulose; basidia 7.4.(1. thick, 2-spored; hy- 

 menium covering the surface, 130-150(1. thick, in our sections three 

 layers deep. Patouillard places the species under his sub-genus 

 Dendrocladium, which he defines (1. c, p. 33) as having the hy- 



