History. The first specimen of Cladoderris to reach Europe was collected by 

 Gaudichaud on the voyage of the Uranie (1817-1820) on the Island of Rawak. It 

 was named, figured and described by Persoon (1826) as Thelephora dendritica' 

 and Persoon suggested a distinct genus for which he proposed the name Cladoderris. 

 The type specimen (Fig. 521) is now in Persoon's herbarium at Leiden. Gaudichaud, 

 on a subsequent voyage, collected abundantly the same species in Brazil, which 

 specimens are now at Paris, correctly named by Montagne and Leveille. 



There is another old specimen of Cladoderris (elegans) in Persoon's herbarium, 

 source unknown, labeled in Persoon's writing, Hydnum scabrum. It was, without 

 question, the first papillate species to reach Europe, but was not published, al- 

 though Persoon evidently intended to publish it as his notes for preparing a draw- 

 ing are still on the specimen. 



The next Cladoderris to be named was from Surinam and was distributed by 

 Weigelt under the MS. name Thelephora crassa. This was afterwards called Ac- 

 tinostroma crassa by Klotzsch. It is exactly the same as Cladoderris dendritica, 

 previously named by Persoon. 



Junghuhn in 1840 published and figured Cladoderris elegans from Java, under 

 the name Cymatoderma elegans. This was the first papillate species to be pub- 

 lished. As it was the first time a separate, generic name had been definitely applied 

 to any species of Cladoderris, it would be an easy matter to juggle all species of 

 Cladoderris under the generic name Cymatoderma on the grounds of priority, but 

 fortunately the professional jugglers have not as yet worked with the foreign Thele- 

 phoraceae, hence it has not been done. It is only a question of time, however, when 

 some one will be found, cheap enough to engage in this work. 



In 1843 Klotzsch. innocent of any knowledge of what had previously been 

 published, also proposed a new genus Actinostroma, and described two "new spe- 

 cies" from Philippines, Actinostroma infundibuliformis and Actinostroma crassa. 

 The former has good characters, the latter which Klotzsch correctly compared with 

 Weigelt's specimen from Surinam, is the same as Cladoderris dendritica. 



Fries in Fungi Natalenses (1848) named another species Cladoderris spongiosa, 

 collected by Wahlberg in South Africa. He brought together and listed all that 

 had previously been published, and adopted Persoon's (suggested) name Clado- 

 derris. He arranged the species on stipe characters (of no value, as previously 

 stated) and included nine species. Only four of these (previously mentioned), viz., 

 dendritica, elegans, infundibuliformis and spongiosa are really meritorious, and 

 although about twenty alleged species have since been proposed, I think (with one 

 exception funalis) all were better referred as synonyms to some one of these four. 



Cesati (1879) made the remarkable discovery (which had been known and 

 illustrated forty years before) of the papillae on Cladoderris elegans and imme- 

 diately proposed a new genus Beccariella based on these papillae, which was held 

 to be valid in Saccardo's compilation (Vol. 6, p. 551). It is needless to say it has 

 no value, as papillae on the hymenium is a character common to all true species of 

 Cladoderris. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Pileus entire, even. 



Tomentose pad well developed. 

 Hymenial folds narrow. 



Papillae none or few dendritica. 

 Papillae numerous elegans. 

 Hymenial folds broad, obtuse spongiosa. 



Pileus entire, ridged. Slightly tomentose, rarely with a distinct pad. Hymenium 

 with broad folds and many papillae infundibuliformis. 

 Pileus dissected. funalis. 



CLADODERRIS DENDRITICA (Figs. 521, 522 and 523, pp. 4 

 and 5). Color pale, probably white when fresh. Pileus usually flabelli- 

 form, rarely infundibuliform, the upper surface even, spongy, with a 

 dense, thick tomentum layer (Fig. 520). 



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