NEW YORK SPECIES OF CRATERELLUS. 
CRATERELLUS /*. 
“Hymenium waxy-membranous, distinct, but adnate to the 
hymenophorum, definitely inferior, continuous, glabrous, even or 
rugose. Spores white. 
“ Terrestrial, fleshy or membranous, autumnal fungi, related to 
the Cantharelli and furnished with an entire pileus and a stem.” 
Hymen. Europ., p. 630. 
This genus is intimately related to Cantharellus on one hand, and 
by its nearly even hymenium it approaches Thelephora and Clavaria 
on the other. So intimate is its relationship. with Cantharellus that, 
in the Systema Mycologicum, its species were referred to that genus, 
and in his later work, the Hymenomycetes Europzei, Professor Fries 
justly remarks that the analogy between various species of the two 
genera is wonderful. Indeed, some of the species of these genera 
cannot readily be distinguished without an inspection of the hyme- 
nium, so closely do they resemble each other in size, shape and color. 
The species of Craterellus have the hymenium nearly even, or merely 
rugose or rugose-wrinkled, the folds or wrinkles being irregular or 
indistinet, or so interwoven and lost in each other and in the hyme- 
nium that any particular one cannot readily be traced from the stem 
to the margin of the pileus, as they can be in species of Cantharellus. 
In the same species the wrinkles are more distinct in some specimens 
than in others, and often they are more distinct in the fresh plant 
than in the dried one. In all our species the hymenium is decurrent. 
The pileus is frequently more or less split or lobed on the margin 
aud sometimes is divided nearly to its base. It is not clear why the 
genus should be characterized as ‘“ autumnal,’ for some of the species 
occur as early as July. In some of the older works these fungi are 
distributed in the genera Cantharellus, Merulius, Elvella and Peziza. 
The name Craterellus signifies a little cup, and has reference to the 
shape of the pileus in some species. 
