Barrett: Three Common Species of Auricularia 13 



Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, 

 District of Columbia, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, 

 Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, 

 Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Montana, the 

 West Indies, and the Philippines. It is reported also from Massa- 

 chusetts, North Carolina, Texas, Nebraska, and California. 



ExsiccATi : There are specimens in most of the usual European 

 and American exsiccati. 



Illustrations: Hussey, 111. Brit. Myc. pi. 5j; Eng. Bot. cd. 

 1 : 2447; Berk. Outl. pi. 18, f. 7; Cooke, Handbook, /. p/; Bolt. 

 Hist. Fungi, 2 : pi. 107; Batt. Fung. Agri. pi. /. F; Sterb. 

 Theat. pi. 27, f. H; Mich. Nov. Gen. pi. 66, f. i; Blackw. Herball, 

 pi. ^^4; Marshall, Mushroom Book, 116; Brefeld, Unters. 7: pi. 



4, f' 3. 4- 



This fungus is the well-known Jew's ear or Judas' ear, which 

 was described under that name at least as far back as the end of the 

 sixteenth century. Since that time it has had perhaps three times 

 as many names as the above list of synonyms would seem to indi- 

 cate. Undoubtedly many even of the comparatively recently de- 

 scribed species of Auricularia will eventually be referred back 

 to this species. 



Such multiplication of names is of course due to the wide dis- 

 tribution of the Judas' ear, to its ability to grow upon many dif- 

 ferent kinds of decaying wood, and to its great variation in size, 

 color and shape. Young specimens are usually not only smaller, 

 but lighter in color and smoother. Gradations in this respect 

 were admirably shown by one set of specimens from Jamaica 

 (No. II2S, Mrs. N. L. Britton Coll., Oct. 4, 1908). Then too, in 

 a fungus of which about 80 per cent, is water (Weems & Hess 

 in Proc. Soc. Prom. Agr. Sci 23: 167. 1902) the method of 

 drying will affect its appearance, and may lead to confusion unless 

 specimens to be determined are soaked with water until they 

 regain their original condition. 



The chief interest of the Jew's ear for the botanists of the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries seems to have lain in the 

 question of its edibility. Gerarde (Herball, 1385. 1597) says: 

 the Mushrums or Toadstooles which grow upon the trunks or 

 bodies of old trees, verie much resembling Auricula ludae, that 



