SPORE-DISCHARGE IN THE CLAVARIEAE 



183 



proceed basifugally, are all more or less obconic, i.e. have the same 

 general form as the simple club of Clavaria pistillaris. A branched 

 Clavaria is, therefore, in many species 

 at least, nothing but a compound 

 club (cf. Fig. 64). Thus, in Clavaria 

 pyxidata, the branches belonging to 

 the three last branch-systems all of 

 which are spore-bearing are all nar- 

 rowest at their base and gradually 

 thicken toward their tops ; and each 

 branch which rebranches produces at 

 its expanded top two or more 

 narrowly-based still thinner branches. 

 We have here, as it were in miniature, 

 the fruit-body of a Clavaria pistillaris 

 which, instead of ending bluntly, 

 branches at its top and produces there 

 a limited number of new and smaller 

 clubs which in their turn rebranch 

 and produce still more new and yet 

 smaller clubs. 



It was remarked above that the 

 basal parts of branched Clavariae are 

 probably always barren. Such barren- 

 ness I actually observed in mature 

 fruit-bodies of Clavaria pyxidata, C. 

 formosa, and C. cinerea. The absence 

 of a hymenium from the basal parts 

 of these fruit-bodies was proved by 

 studying the surface with the micro- 

 scope and by the non-production of 

 spore-deposits. When a fruit-body 



was laid horizontally in a small chamber in which it could 

 transpire but very slowly, the upper halves of the fruit-bodies 

 alone produced spore-deposits and the basal parts no deposits 

 whatever. We thus find that only those parts of the fruit- 

 bodies produce spores which project above the substratum most 



FIG. 63. Clavaria pyxidata. A, 

 B, and C, branches of a fruit- 

 body composed of obconic 

 elements, the terminal ele- 

 ments a being hollowed at 

 the top like the podetia of 

 the lichen Cladonia pyxidata. 

 Since the branches have an 

 upright habit, the hymenium 

 which covers them looks more 

 or less downwards. D, a 

 spore-deposit from a forked 

 branch. E, the upper part 

 of a basidium showing the 

 sterigmata and spores. F , two 

 spores from a spore-deposit. 

 Drawn from a fruit-body col- 

 lected by Rudolf Hiebert at 

 Gimli, Lake Winnipeg. A, 

 B, C, and D, enlarged to 1. 

 E, and F, magnification 1,414. 



