164 JOURNAL OF THE MiTCHELL SOCIETY [February 



North American Flora (No. 719 as C. laeve on Magnolia). Another 

 from England (Berkeley) has the same appearance. They do not, 

 however, agree with the description of that species by Wakefield 

 (Trans. Brit. Nye. Soc. 4: 115. 1912). 

 3993. On bark of dead Magnolia iripelala, January 21, 1920. 



ASTEROSTROMA 



Effused on rotting wood; soft and spongy; particularly charac- 

 terized by deep brown, stellate cells (cystidia) included in the con- 

 text and making up its greatest bulk; pale, simple, protruding cystidia 

 also present in our species. We include the only species we have 

 found. 



Asterostroma cervicolor (B. & C.) Massee 



Plate 34 



Extensively effused on very rotten deciduous wood, forming 

 irregular patches up to 8-10 cm. or more wide and long; surface 

 dull, minutely pruinose, pale fawn color when dry, deep dull brown 

 when wet; margin fading out, indistinct, nearly concolorous. Tex- 

 ture soft and spongy except for a crust-like upper layer which may 

 crack a httle when dry, the thick, softer context not cracking. Dis- 

 tinctly but slowly bibulous, and soggy when wet. 



Plant up to nearly 1 mm, thick. Hymenium 30-35^ thick, fol- 

 lowed immediately by a very dense layer of stellate cells mixed with 

 much granular material, below this a thick, much more open tissue, 

 composed most conspicuously of the large stellate cells which char- 

 acterize the genus. Mixed with these are bits of imperfect, frag- 

 mentary, very slender, hyahne hyphae and granular detritus. In 

 the more open layer there may be a thin, much denser layer just 

 like that beneath the hymenium. Many fat droplets are present 

 in the cells of the hymenium. 



Basidia projecting about 7-lOtJL, irregularly pole-shaped, about 

 4-6tJL thick, with four slender, straight sterigmata about 4[jl long. 

 Cystidia broadly spike-shaped, almost colorless, with moderately thick 

 walls, not encrusted, projecting a little farther than the basidia. 

 Stellate cells deep brown, with about 4-12 spine-like arms which 

 radiate from a central point and may be branched but are usually 

 simple; their walls thick to very thick; arms variable in length, run- 

 ning from very short to 82tJi. long. These stellate bodies are evi- 



