1920] The Lower Basidiomycetes of North Carolina 179 



which is about 1.5-3 mm. broad, often depressed by a central wrinkle 

 with the margin a little lobed or at times deeply constricted to form 

 a compound head or two separate heads, or further compounded and 

 crowded by branching of the stem below ; the exposed stalk short, 

 only up to 1 mm. long and 1-1.5 mm. thick, unless compounded, not 

 visible plainly except in youth, usually flattened, descending through 

 the bark by a flattened, whitish root about 2-3 mm. long, tough and 

 hardly subgelatinous. Texture of cap firm and toughly gelatinous, 

 softer on exposure in age. 



Spores (of No. 4183) bent-elliptic, 4-celled before sprouting, 5-6.6 x 

 11-16. 6/j,; basidia slender, two-forked. 



The head is distinctly viscid when wet, and when young is covered 

 with an inconspicuous, subhyaline, outer coat which softens in water 

 and seems to be washed off in particles. After disappearing from the 

 top a remnant of it may be seen when soaked as a little area of fringe 

 around the margin of the head. The stalk penetrates holes and cracks 

 in the bark as a root and disappears into more or less obvious plates 

 of mycelium. The root is often branched from the base or further up 

 to form a compound row or group. It is usually glabrous on exposed 

 part, and where protect(>d by bark it is whitened and somewhat fibrous 

 with mycelium. The smaller or younger plants have very little, if 

 any, free stem above the bark. As parts of the bark are easily removed 

 in handling, one might be misled as to what part of the stem-root w^as 

 exposed. On drying the plant shrinks, but retains its form unless 

 old and softened ; the color of the cap becomes a translucent red, with 

 the expo.sed stalk about the same color or more brown, while the root- 

 ing part remains whitish. Old plants exposed to rain lose much of 

 their color and dry pale and membranous. 



Our plant is most like Dacryint/ccs auraiitiiis, but differs from it 

 in the less ample and less plate-like root, viscid head, and shorter 

 spores with only four cells. Large and mature plants cannot be dis- 

 tinguished witli cfTtMinty fri)in it witliout reference to the spore 

 characters, 



Lloj'd has seen my plants, and 1 am following him in calling tliis 

 Ditiola radicata, as he has collected that species in Sweden and should 

 know it. There are discrepancies between our plants and the descrip- 

 tions of this sp<'ci('s. Foi- example, Fries says it is covered with a 

 flocculent white coat when young, and the spores are given by Ilen- 

 uings as two-ceiied, 3..S-4 x .S-l()|u. Plants in the Curtis Herbarium 



