Presidential Address. Carleton Rea. 17 
Transactions an excellent “List of the British species of Disco- 
mycetes arranged according to Boudier’s system, with a key to 
the genera.’’ We are I fear very conservative in our ideas of 
the classification of our British Fungi as it appears that close 
on thirty years had elapsed between the first publication of 
Boudier’s system and its adoption and now almost twenty years 
have passed since Patouillard propounded his revision of the 
Basidiomycetae. In 1910 Boudier completed his “‘ cones Myco- 
logicae ou Iconographie des Champignons de France principale- 
ment Discomycétes.” This is undoubtedly the very finest illus- 
trated work on fungi that has ever been issued, and the minute 
microscopical details, beautifully portrayed on each plate, make 
it of the greatest value and assistance in the identification of 
species, and indispensable to the student of the Discomycetae. 
In r919 Mr A. D. Cotton and Miss E. M. Wakefield gave us 
a very valuable “ Revision of the British Clavariae”’ (see Trans. 
Brit. Myc. Soc. vi, 164) founded on fourteen years’ study of 
this genus by the former, and | think we are much indebted to 
them for giving us such a reliable monograph of our British 
species. I must however protest against Clavaria dissipabtlis 
Britz. being treated as a synonym of Clavaria inaequalis (Miill.) 
Fr. because the former is distinguished from the latter by having 
echinulate spores. Cotton in a paper published in 1907 (see 
Trans. Brit. Myc. Soc. 0, 163) maintains that this spore 
character must be attributed to Clavaria inaequalis (Mill.) Fr. 
and alleges that “the first reference to the character of the 
spores appears to be in 1882, in which year Karsten (Ryss. 
Finl. Skand. Hattsv. 11, 171) describes these bodies as elliptical, 
10 x 5p,’ but I feel confident that such eminent mycologists 
as Boudier and Patouillard would never have published their 
description of Clavaria similis in 1888, unless they had been 
satisfied that the true Clavaria inaequalis (Miill.) Fr. possessed 
smooth spores. It is generally admitted as Cotton states that 
Clavaria similis Boud. & Pat. is synonymous with Clavaria 
disstpabilis Britz. and must give way to the latter on the ground 
of priority. Cotton and Wakefield in the Monograph, p. 190, say 
“it is possible that a species with smooth, elliptical spores occurs 
on the Continent, but if so it is obviously very rare and cannot 
be regarded as representing the old and well-known Clavaria 
inaequalis.’’ But the French assign a smooth ovoid spherical 
spore to Clavaria inaequalis (Miill.) Fr. Quélet in his ‘Flore 
Mycologique de la France’’ published in 1888 describes the spores, 
at p. 461, as “‘ovoide sphérique, 7», and Bourdot and Galzin 
in the “‘Hyménomycétes de France”’ which appeared in 1910 in 
the Bulletin de la Société Mycologique de France, XXVI, 217, 
define the spores as “ ovoides-sphériques, apiculées, 7—9 « 6-8 p,”’ 
MS. 2 
