346 TEXT-BOOK OF FUNGI 



dead wood in Dacryomyces ; as more or less fan-shaped, 

 erect plates in Guepinia, common in the tropics ; or as 

 erect, simple, or branched structures resembling a Clavuria, 

 in Calocera. 



Distinguished by the gelatinous consistency and basidia 

 with two long, stout sterigmata. In most species the spores 

 are septate, or become so during germination. Septate 

 spores are unknown elsewhere in the Basidiomycetes. 



Generally distributed. 



Clavarieae 



The members of this family present great variety of 

 form ; the most primitive types consisting of a simple, 

 upright, more or less clavate or club-shaped sporophore, 

 hence the name of the family. On the other hand, the 

 most highly differentiated genus, Sparassis, consists of a 

 dense mass of contorted tissue that has been compared in 

 appearance to the heart of a cauliflower, which it ap- 

 proaches or sometimes exceeds in size. Between these 

 two extremes there is almost every conceivable form, 

 commencing with a very slightly branched sporophore, as 

 in Clavaria rugosa, and passing on to such types as C. 

 abietina, etc., where, from a short stem, spring many short, 

 main branches, which, by repeated dichotomous divisions, 

 forms a densely branched head. The ultimate branchlets 

 are often forcipate, or curved inwards towards each other, 

 and the axils are often conspicuously rounded or lunate. 

 Some of the minute forms spring from a small sclerotium. 



The general scheme of structure throughout the group 

 is primitive, the whole surface of the sporophore is fertile, 

 and there is no protection, structural or physiological, for 

 the hymenium against climatic influences or living enemies. 



