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HARVEY E. STORK 
amorphus (lower figure, Plate XXXI) are normally convex. Those of the 
former species also tend to be larger and more subject to confluence. Fries 
(8) considered the two species identical, and more recently Morgan (i8) 
made A . Oakesii the same as A . amorphus. The character of the paraphyses 
of the two is, however, quite different, those of A. amorphus being monili- 
form and those of the other species of a peculiar bottle-brush type. These 
differences were pointed out by Cooke (4) and later by Peirce (19). 
The fruit bodies of A. amorphus develop during the summer on the 
surface of twigs and small branches of fallen Ahies halsamea. They have 
never been observed on branches larger than three centimeters in diameter. 
They do not occur on the twigs and branches of living trees, nor on those of 
trees that have been dead for too long a time. The fungus seems to be 
definitely selective in the degree of decay of its substratum. During the 
observation of each of the four summers, the numerous balsam firs that 
had been blown down by the wind since the preceding summer were never 
seen to harbor the fungus. But during the second summer after the falling 
of the tree, the fungus was seen to produce its orange-yellow fruit bodies 
abundantly, and they might recur in the third summer, but in the fourth 
summer in the history of a fallen tree no evidence of the life of the fungus 
was ever observed. In two relatively low fern swamps kept under observa- 
tion, in which there were numerous balsam firs, some of which were up- 
rooted by the wind each year, one could predict almost with certainty upon 
which of the fallen trees A . amorphus could be found during any one summer. 
Aside from the balsam fir several other conifers are reported as harboring 
the fungus as a bark saprophyte, viz., Ahies concolor, Thuja plicata, Picea 
sp., Tsuga sp. 
The fruit bodies usually are very abundant on the lower and moister 
sides of twigs and branches and are seldom seen on the upper sides unless 
these are very well protected from dessication. The habit photographs (Plate 
XXXI) were made by pointing the camera upward under fallen trees. In 
descriptions of this species as well as of others of the genus the statement is 
often made that the fruit bodies are incrusted with mineral matter to such 
a degree as to make structural studies difficult. In all material used by the 
writer no incrustations were ever observed, and mineral crystals among the 
hyphae have never interfered with the making of sections. 
A description of the species will not be repeated here. The reader is 
referred to the description given by Burt (3). A feature not noted in any 
descriptions is that the mature spores in mass present a distinctly pink 
tinge, although by transmitted light the spore coat appears hyaline. Hen- 
nings (11) describes the color of the hymenium as being at first scarlet, then 
becoming paler. No material has ever been collected by the writer that 
had any suggestion of red. The fruit bodies are at first of a yellowish-orange 
color that may later become paler and even a light buff. The plant no 
doubt varies in different localities in some of its characters, as is also indi- 
