4to BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
ditions of environment, though at present it is difficult to say just 
what conditions produce a robust form and what ones produce a 
more slender form. SCHROETER (1. c.) found the robust form on 
decaying wood, and suggested that perhaps it might be a different 
species which should bear the name given by Fries (/. c.) to the 
robust form, 8 turgida. Along with this variation in the robustness 
of the plant, there is a variation in the direction of a deformity where 
the clavula may be flattened, triangular, curved, etc., which has 
led some observers to question the identity of some of the forms 
described and figured by different writers. That the form on wood 
‘is not always robust is well shown in a small and slender specimen 
which I collected several years ago on a log in the mountains of 
North Carolina. The log was not much decayed, and possibly the 
conditions of nutrition were not so favorable as in the case of much 
decayed wood, which was the condition of the substratum on which 
the robust Ithaca specimens grew (plate XIV, fig. 1). The variation 
in these individuals growing close together is sufficient to show what 
the range in form may be in specimens from different localities. 
There is also a variation in color. The plant is usually said to 
be “tan” color, or “leather” color (to which the specific A 
alutacea, refers), or “‘pallid,”’ and sometimes “white.” White forms 
gave rise to the variety @ Sphaeria albicans Pers.3° BERKELEY* 
describes the plants as tan-colored or nearly white. The color very 
likely depends very largely on the age of the plants when collected. 
The Ithaca plants here described were entirely white when collected. 
But the fact that the asci are so well preserved and most of the spores 
are still in the asci shows that the plants were just ripening. The 
plants in pure culture which had their parentage directly from the 
white ones, had white stems, but the clavulae were tan-colored 
the time they were photographed, probably because they Went 
well ripened. From the general character of the plant we pas ; 
expect that the young clavula would be white in all cases, - oe 
the color is an attribute of ripening or age, and it is then reason@ : 
to expect, even in specimens with well-formed spores, that e ‘s 
plants are collected there would be a sufficient variation In age 
account for the color variation observed. 
860. 
8° Syn. Method. Fung. 2. 1801. 3t Outlines British Fungology 382: 1 
