Clavarias of the United States and Canada 195 



definition in Syn. Met. Fung., p. 582, except to omit any reference 

 to the pilose tips. He says: "Receptacle coriaceous, branched; 

 branches compressed dilated or rather terete, glabrous every- 

 where, covered with 4-spored basidia. Fungi growing on earth 

 or wood, related to Thelephoras and Clavarias." He confined 

 Lachnocladium to tough plants in which even the branches (hy- 

 menium) were tomentose; no reference to spores. His descrip- 

 tion is: "Receptacle leathery, branched, branches compressed or 

 terete, tomentose over the entire fruiting surface. Coralloid 

 fungi growing on wood or earth." Merisma as defined by Per- 

 soon would include plants which we now know to be Tremel- 

 lodendrons, and which if removed would leave his genus in a 

 form to greatly clarify the present Lachnocladium confusion. 

 This would then place in Merisma our only species from the 

 United States which, it seems to us, cannot be accommodated in 

 Clavaria. There is a great difference between the leathery (cori- 

 aceous) texture of Lachnocladium semivestitum and the pliable, 

 toughish flesh of many Clavarias that have been placed in Lach- 

 nocladium. Moreover, this last group of Clavarias intergrades 

 imperceptibly through the more fleshy-pliable ones into the more 

 tender and fragile species. Merisma on the other hand is as tough 

 as a Stereum and like species of that genus, together with Thele- 

 phora and Tremellodendron, has pilose tips when in active growth. 

 The genus Merisma would then be defined as coriaceous (very 

 tough), pliable, tips pilose in the growing state, always branched 

 in a shrub-like manner ; the hymenium glabrous and covering the 

 plant completely except for the tomentose tips and sterile base; 

 spores smooth, white; basidia simple, 2-4-spored. Separated 

 from Clavaria by really leathery texture and pilose tips in growth. 

 Examples: L. semivestitum, L. cartilagineum. 



Patouillard's redefinition of the genus Lachnocladium (Essai 

 tax. s. 1. fam., etc.) is as follows : 



"Receptacle erect, hard, almost woody, formed of a trunk 

 branched into fastigiate divisions, cylindric, rarely simple; 

 branches compressed at the forks, often channelled on one side, 

 sharp or enlarged at the tips ; hymenium powdered by the spores, 

 exposed over all the surface or limited to the furrowed portion, 

 which is smooth or tomentose ; basidia with 2-4 sterigmata, cystidia 



