1915] 



BURT THELEPHORACEAE OF NORTH AMERICA. V 741 



Type : In Herb. Schweinitz, Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 



Fructifications erect, cespitose or fasciculate, and sometimes 

 with stems grown together, coriaceous, branched, pallid, dry- 

 ing with stems warm buff and branches tawny ; branches few, 

 rather straight, filiform, angular-terete; branchlets many, 

 dilated and fimbriate at the apex, then splitting into spreading 

 branchlets ; hymenium glabrous, amphigenous ; basidia longi- 

 tudinally septate, pyrif orm, 12-15 X 8-9 /* ; spores in prepara- 

 tions from herbarium specimens hyaline, even, simple, 8- 

 10 X 41-5 /i. 



Cluster of fructifications 2-5 cm. high, 2-3 cm. broad. In- 

 dividual from cluster has stem 5-10 mm. long, ^1 mm. thick ; 

 branches about ^J-J mm. thick. 



On the ground in open woods. Massachusetts and New York 

 to South Carolina and westward to Missouri. June to August. 



This is a small species with the habit of a Pterula but with 

 coriaceous structure and longitudinally septate basidia. The 

 fructifications of a cluster may have their stems distant from 

 one another by spaces equal to the diameter of the stems, but 

 the branches interlock above ; in other cases the fructifications 

 are crowded closely together and united throughout their 

 whole length. T, merismatoides may be distinguished from 

 the preceding species by the smaller diameter of the stems and 

 branches and from all the following species by its cespitose 

 to fasciculate habit. 



The collection from West Virginia, distributed as Thele- 

 phora pteruloides in Ell. & Ev., *N. Am. Fungi, ^ 3415 and 

 * Fungi Col.,' 1117, has the hymenium composed of basidia 

 standing side by side in a distinct palisade layer and the 

 basidia not longitudinally septate in my opinion. 



Specimens examined: 

 Massachusetts : near Boston, Murray, comm. by Sprague, 250 



(in Curtis Herb, under the name Thelephora pteruloides 



B. & C.) ; Woods Hole, G. T. Moore, 58, 

 New York : Ithaca, G. F. Atkinson, 37; Fishers Island, C. C. 



Hanmer, 1478 (in Hanmer Herb.). 

 New Jersey : Haddonfield, T. J. Collins comm. by C. G. Lloyd. 

 Pennsylvania: Bethlehem, Schweinitz, type (in Herb. 



