British Clavariae. A. D. Cotton & E. M. Wakefield. 173 



be due to the fact that they did not examine the spores with 

 a sufficiently high magnification. 



4. C. FORMOSA Fr., Syst. Myc. i. p. 466. 



C. formosa Pers., Comm. p. 41; ? C. fastigiata Batsch, 

 Elench. tab. 11, fig. 48; C. coralloides pur[^urea Hohnsk., 

 Fung. Dan. i. 1799, p. 116, tab. 30, p.p.; Clavariella formosa 

 Karst., Hattsv. ii. 1882, p. 185. 



Ilhistrations : Pers., Ic. et Descr. i. tab. 3, fig. 6; Gillet, 

 Champ. Fr. Hymen, tab. 511; Holmsk., Fung. Dan. i. 1799, 

 tab. 30 (6 and c) ; Krombh., Abb. u. Beschreib. tab. 54, figs. 

 21-22; RoUand in Bull. Soc. Myc. Fr. ix. 1893, tab. 4, fig. 8; 

 Weberbauer, Pilze, tab. 10, fig. 2. 



Plants large, about 15 cm. in diameter, gregarious, much 

 branched, very fragile, colour pinkish buff, pale at first but 

 deeper later, the tips of the branches yellowish or very slightly 

 tinged with pink, every part turning violet and finally black 

 when bruised; taste slight, smell none. Stem white at first, 

 then deep pinkish buff, rooting base absent. Branching 

 irregular or irregularly dichotomous, axils slightly flattened; 

 branches erect, cylindrical or flattened, elongated, distinctly 

 grooved, i cm. thick below, 2 mm. above, apices blunt. Flesh 

 white, solid. Internal structure of frequently septate irregular 

 hyphae, loosely interwoven in the centre, 6-8 (-10) /u, wide, 

 occasionally swollen up to 14/x at the septa, more slender and 

 more closely interwoven towards the margin, somewhat 

 parenchymatous in transverse section. A few latex hyphae 

 present. Basidia not conspicuous, 30-40 x 6-8 /x; sterigmata 

 4, erect. Spores pale-coloured, ochraceous in the mass, ellipti- 

 cal, apiculate, minutely granular, almost smooth, 9-11 x 5/x. 



Habitat. On the ground under trees (beech). Lyndhurst, 

 Sept. 1916, growing in a large semicircle. 



Very rare in Britain. The above description is drawn up 

 from the Lyndhurst specimens, which on the whole appear 

 to agree better with the older descriptions of C. formosa than 

 some of the British plants which have been so referred. 



As here understood, C. formosa is a large, very fragile plant, 

 differing from C. hotrytis in the fact that the apices of the 

 branches are yellowish, or at most slightly tinged ginkish, and 

 in the granular, not striate spores. It is distinguished from 

 C. flava and C. aurea by the pinkish buff colour, which is some- 

 what like that of C. stricta. The original record of C. formosa 

 in Britain, by Berkeley and Broome (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, 

 vol. XV. 1865, p. 321), appears to have been based on a plant 

 which was distinct from any of these species, and which is here 

 described as a new species (C. Broomei), while some of the later 



