1920] The Lower Basidiomycetes of North Carolina 165 



orange-yellow, more or less closely convoluted like a brain, not glau- 

 cous ; this form varies to gregarious colonies of smaller plants as small 

 as 1 mm., some crowded, some single. Young plants are mostly the 

 same orange color as older ones, but others have a distinct tint of 

 olive as in D. minor, also like the latter in the protection of the very 

 young plants hj a fiocculent-cottony coat, which is broken through 

 and at times carried up for a Avhile as a little white cap ; texture 

 toughish wax3'-gelatinous ; surface opaque, inner part transparent and 

 concolorous. 



Spores (of No. 3972) orange-yellow, sausage-shaped, curved, 4.3- 

 6.6 X 13-18. 5jit, soon divided after shedding into four cells. Basidia as 

 usual in the genus, strongly two-pronged, 3.7 x 4/a thick. 



A striking plant, peculiar in the distinct little round roots which 

 descend into the wood about 3-5 mm. apart, the effect being like that 

 of a lot of thickish and irregular thumbtacks with the heads fused, 

 and the points stuck in the pine. It differs from the other yellow or 

 orange species as follows: from D. cibietinus by rooting bases, stronger 

 color, larger masses and shorter spores with fewer cells; from D. au- 

 rantius in smaller and, when in masses, separate rootlets which are not 

 so deeply penetrating, in shorter spores, in not drying red, and in 

 occurrence on decorticated and more rotten logs; from D. EUisii in 

 larger masses, spores averaging longer and in growing on pine ; from 

 Ditiola radicata in unbranched and proportionally smaller stalks, 

 absence of viscidity, occurrence on decorticated wood and in not dry- 

 ing red ; the spores are nearly alike. 



We have examined the type of D. involutus Schw. in his herbarium and find 

 tliat it agrees with our plant, showing the characteristic form and the flocculent 

 covering in youth. The spores agree perfectly except that they are not quite 

 so long, a matter of small importance as the length of spores in this genus varies 

 considerably in different collections. In the Sehweinitz collection they are elliptic, 

 curved, about 4-celled, 5.5 x 12.5^. Schweinitz's description is as follows: 



"Of the size of D. stillatus, subrotund-dilated, gyrose-plicate, pale golden. 

 Base covered with fibrous white tomentum which often grows over the whole 

 fungus. Related to IJ. lacrymalifi, on old wood at Salom and Bethlehem. ' ' 



This is certainly I), corticoides, collections of that species 

 determined by Ellis at the New York Botanical Garden, 

 agreeing perfectly and tlie description agreeing in convin- 

 cing details (Jour. Myc. 1 :149. 1885). The "narrow, white, subbyssoid 

 margin" appears clearly in our ]ilants when drying undisturbed. Tlie 

 color of the dried planls is a dull reddish-brown with yellow areas; 



