1915] 



BURT THELEPHORACEAE OF NORTH AMERICA. V 735 



Type: in Herb. Schweinitz and a portion in Curtis Herb. 



Fructification cespitose, erect, white or pallid, drying warm 

 buff, stipitate by one to several or many stems which may be 

 distinct below or arise from a common, swollen, basal mass; 

 above, the stems branch into flattened, more or less furrowed, 

 pileate divisions which grow together at surfaces of contact 

 to form a somewhat cup-shaped or rosette-like mass ; divisions 

 in center of mass somewhat subulate at the apex, those at 

 margin dilated and sometimes fimbriate, splitting when dry 

 into sharp fibers or spicules ; hymenium inferior, warm buff, 

 best developed towards the base of the pileate divisions; 

 basidia pyriform, longitudinally cruciately septate, 12-15 X 9 

 li ; spores from a spore collection, white, simple, 10-12 X 4|- 

 5| /x, and 9-12 X 4| /x from an herbarium specimen. 



Fructifications 2-10 cm. high, 2-15 cm. broad. 



On the ground in deep woods. Canada to South Carolina 

 and westward to Missouri. June to October. Common. 



Full-grown and well-developed specimens are rosette-like 

 and resemble Thelephora vialis when viewed from above but 

 may have the pileate mass supported by many stems ; small 

 specimens with only a single stem do occur. The large speci- 

 mens are apparently due to the concrescence of many small 

 fructifications. In the large specimens the pileate divisions on 

 the outside of the mass become broader and more flattened 

 than those in the interior. The flattened form of the divisions 

 of the pileus and their growing together at numerous points 



of contact are characters separating Tremellodendron palli- 

 dum from T. candidum. The small specimens, distributed as 

 T. pallidum in published exsiccati, are often so immature and 

 fragmentary that they cannot be distinguished from T. 

 candidum. 



Forms of T. pallidum which have the tips of pileate divi- 

 sions split into sharp fibers or spicules are the Thelephora 

 cristata and T. serrata of Schweinitz, 'Syn. N. Am. Fungi,' 

 Nos. 621 and 623. 



Specimens examined: 



Exsiccati: Ravenel, Fungi Car. II, 29; Ellis, N. Am. Fungi, 

 510; Ell. & Ev., Fungi Col., 1208; Shear, N. Y. Fungi, 50. 



