402 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
The earlier students looked upon this fungus as an autonomous 
plant with an erect clavate stroma; among them are the following. 
Prrsoon? first described it as Sphaeria alutacea. SowErsy? dis- 
covered it in 1783, and described it in 1799 as Sphaeria clavaia. 
SCHUMACHERS followed Persoon. ALBERTINI and SCHWEINITZ® in 
1805 record it as growing on decaying Alnus. NEES von EsENBECK? 
in 1816 placed it in his subdivision of clavate Sphaeriae (Keulen- 
Spharien-S phaeriae Clavaeformes) which he says are like a simple 
Clavaria, or Geoglossum in which the ascus layer has changed into 
perithecia. The first species which he places in this group is the 
leather-yellow Sphaeria, S. alutacea Pers. He states that it grows 
on the ground in fir woods. FRrres® in his treatment of the genus 
Sphaeria places it in the tribe Cordyceps, series Hypocrea, as Sphaeria 
alutacea. 
Those also who have placed it in the genus Cordyceps regarded 
it as an autonomous plant. Lrnx? first placed it in Cordyceps as 
C. alutacea and was followed by Fries.*° It was distributed under 
two different numbers in Rab. Fung. Europ. Ex. 132 (1860) from 
pine woods, England, as C. alutacea (Pers.) collected by C. E. BROOME, 
and no. 246 (1860) from mossy woods, near Leipzig, as C. alutacea 
B albicans (Pers.), a lighter form, from alutaceus to white, according 
to the note in connection with the specimen... BERKELEY" under 
Cordyceps alutacea Fr. says “clavate, tan colored or nearly white, 
head confluent with the stem. In fir woods amongst leaves and 
furze,” and his figures show a variation in size between stout and 
slender forms. QuéLET*? in connection with Cordyceps alulacea 
(evidently using the name employed by Fries in Summa Veg. elc.) 
3 Obs. Mycol. 2:66. pl. 1, jig. 2, a, b, c. 1797. Comm, de fung. clavif. 12. 1797- 
4English Fungi 2: pl. 159. 1799. ei, 
‘Enum. Pl. Sellandiae 2:175. no. 1343. 1803. 
® Consp. Fung. Lusat. Sup. 1. 1805. 
7 System der Pilze 289. pl. go, fig. 304. 1816. 
8 Syst. Myc. 2:325. 1823. 
9 Handb. z. Erkenn. der Gewachse 3:347, no. 5. 1833. 
ro Summa Veg. Scand. 381. 1840. 
*t Outlines Brit. Fungol. 382. pl. 26, fig. 6. 1860. 
*? Champignon du Jura et des Vosges 487. 1869. 
