NOTES ON THE THELEPHORACEAE OF NORTH CAROLINA 



By W. C. CoKER 

 Plates 14-35 



Plants (the fruiting body) of this family varying from fibrous and 

 tough and leathery to waxy when wet, in some species hard and 

 brittle; form various, upright and fan-shaped to funnel-shaped (and 

 simple or branched) or shell-shaped to bracket-shaped and laterally 

 attached, or partially to completely spread out on the substratum 

 (resupinate) ; the hymenium borne only on one surface, or rarely 

 all over the fruit-body (amphigeneous), smooth (without teeth, pores 

 or gills) or nodulated or wrinkled; basidia simple and club-shaped, 

 usually with four spores (2-8). The great majority grow on dead 

 wood, some grow on the ground, and some are parasitic. 



Most of the genera of this family are composed of very insignifi- 

 cant species of slight popular or economic interest, except where 

 involved in the rotting of timber. We have tried to treat fully only 

 a few of the genera, in others we include only a few species as rep- 

 resentative. All of the North American genera of this family are 

 being carefully monographed by Dr. Burt, and his work, if published, 

 is referred to under each genus. See also Massee: A Monograph of 

 the Thelephoraceae. Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. 25: 107. 1889; 27: 95. 

 1890, and Wakefield: Some Notes on the Genera of the Thelephoraceae. 

 Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc. 4: 301. 1914. See also Bourdot and Galzin 

 as cited under the genera. Interested students can turn to these 

 papers for a fuller treatment. 



Many of the drawings of Corticium, Peniophora, Hypochnus, and 

 Coniophora were made by Mr. J. N. Couch, recently assistant in 

 Botany. Miss Alma Holland, assistant in Botany, has inked in most 

 of the drawings and made most of the spore drawings. The photo- 

 graphs and a good many of the drawings were made by the author. 



Key to the Genera Treated 



Parasitic on members of the Heath Family, causing galls or 

 other abnormalities; spore-bearing surface forming a thin, 

 adherent coat on the host Exobasidium (p. 147) 



[ 146 1 



