i8o Transactions British Mycological Society. 



(c) Plants violet. 



13. C. AMETHYSTINA Fr., Syst. Myc. i. p. 472. 



Clavaria amethystina Pers., Comment, p. 46; Coralloides 

 amethystina Batt., Fung. Agr. Arim. Hist. 1759, p. 22, tab. i, 

 fig. C; Ramaria amethystina Holmsk., Beata ruris, 1790, p. no; 

 Clavaria amethystea Bull., Champ. Fr. tab. 496, fig. 2. 



Illustrations: Bulliard, loc. cit.; Badham, Esc. Fung. tab. 5, 

 fig. 2; Berk., Outl. tab. 18, fig. 2; Cooke, Plain and Easy 

 Ace. Brit. Fungi, Ed. i, tab. 17, fig. 2; Ed. iii, tab. 11, fig. 3; 

 Cooke, Brit. Edible Fungi, tab. i, fig. 4; Holmsk., Fung. 

 Dan. i. tab. 28. 



Plants branched, 3-4 cm. high, forming small, very compact 

 tufts, lilac or mauve, turning rapidly to yellowish on drying, rather 

 brittle; smell strong, taste tallowy. Stem very short, scarcely 

 distinct. Branching irregular, axils not flattened; branches 

 thick, 3-5 mm. in diameter, short, cylindrical, not attenuated, 

 erect, smooth, solid, apices blunt. Flesh uniform. Internal 

 structure of densely interwoven hyphae, frequently septate, 

 cells 50-100 X 8-12 ju,, not pseudoparenchymatous in trans- 

 verse section. Basidia rather large, 50-60 x y-iOjx, sterig- 

 mata 2-4. Spores smooth, hyaline, globose, with minute basal 

 apiculus, 5-7 /x in diameter. 



Habitat. Among grass in woods and pastures. Rare. 



Specimens from Rothiemurchus (1900) ; Alresford, Hants. 

 (W. L. W. Eyre, 1905, 1909); Clare Island (H. C. Hawley, 

 1910); Dolgelley (C. Th. Green, 1910). 



C. amethystina has somewhat the habit of a short thick form of 

 C. cinerea, with the deep-coloured forms of which it has by 

 some authors been confused. When once the true plant has 

 been seen, however, there is no difficulty in distinguishing it 

 by its beautiful violet colour (almost as deep as that of Laccaria 

 laccata var. amethystina), and by its much smaller spores. It 

 is usually much branched, but sometimes almost simple. The 

 only other violet species in Britain, C. Bizzozeriana, is very 

 much more slender, and in no vj2cy related. 



14. C. Bizzozeriana Sacc, Syll. vi. 1888, p. 693. 



C. tenuissima Sacc, Michelia, i. 1878, p. 436 {non Lev.); 

 C. conchyliata Allen, in Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc. iii. 1908, p. 92. 



Illustrations: Trans, Brit. Myc. Soc. iii. 1908, tab. 8. 



Plants branched, very small, not more than i cm. in height, 

 solitary or in groups, at first violet, becoming discoloured with 

 age. Stem reddish-yellow, pubescent below, with rooting base. 

 Branching irregular, dichotomous, the axils of the branches 

 patent; branches very slender, 0-5 mm. thick, erect, apices 



