REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST FOR I924 55 



Tremella vesicaria Bull. 

 Figure i 

 On ground in open woods among fallen decayed leaves and grow- 

 ing grass. Vernooy kill camp (Potterville), Ulster county. H. D. 

 House, August 9, 1922. 



The varying forms which this plant assumes seem to have been 

 the cause of much confusion. Farlow, Overholts, Lloyd and Burt 

 have described it under various names. The first collection made 

 at Potterville on August 9th, was an exact match for Lloyd's 

 Tremella sparassoidea."' Upon my request Bertha Empt 

 of Vernooy kill camp sent me later in the month (August 30th) 

 from the same spot, an additional collection, which matches Lloyd's 

 description of Tremella vesicaria,*' and which was photo- 

 graphed and is here illustrated. 



The history of the fungus in America is anything but clear. 

 Berkeley" first described it briefly as Corticium tremelli- 

 n u m var. reticulatum. I believe that the expression 

 " reticulated below " as used by Berkeley in this diagnosis has been 

 misunderstood by Lloyd, who says that the plant is not reticulated 

 below. The expression used by Berkeley evidently refers to the 

 common feature of the confluent lobes, which in some plants is 

 especially noticeable toward the base, and which gives them a sponge- 

 like appearance. Li other plants, usually small ones, the lobes are 

 more or less free and broadly clavate. In all specimens the lobes 

 are hollow above, but somewhat spong}' within toward the base. 

 Farlow'* took up Berkeley's name and called the plant Tremella 

 reticulata. 



In the state herbarium are collections made by Doctor Peck-' at 

 three or four widely separated localities, which he referred to 

 Tremella vesicaria Bulliard. Doctor Peck later changed 

 his identification of these plants to Tremella f u c i f o r m i s 

 Berk. As has been lately noted by Burt,^° Tremella fuci- 

 f o r m i s is a smaller and more southern species. 



Lloyd, in 1908,^^ described what is apparently the same thing 

 under the name of Tremella clavarioides. This form 

 is well represented by at least three collections in the state her- 

 barium, which must have been here at the time of Lloyd's visits. 

 They are from Albany, Peck; Bethlehem, C. C. Nichols; and 



^ Lloyd. Tremella sparassoidea. Myc. Writ. 6 : (Myc. Notes 61. 

 page 894. pi. 135. f. 1562.) 1920. 



*> Lloyd. Tremella vesicaria Myc. Writ. 6: (Myc. Notes, p. 871. 

 f. i486.) 1919. 



7 Berkeley. Corticium tremellinum var. reticulatum. 

 Grevillea 1 : 180. 1873. 



■^ Farlow. Rhodora 10 : 9. 1908. 



" Peck. Tremella vesicaria Bull. 28th Rep't N. Y. State Mus. 53. 

 1879. 



1*^ Burt. Tremella reticulata. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 8: 364. 

 1921. 



11 Lloyd. Tremella clavarioides. Myc. Writ. 3 : ( Myc. Notes, 

 Old Species Series i : 10. text fig. 224.) July 1908. 



