254 Mas see.— -A Monograph of the Geogtosseae. 
Distr . — A small genus of six species, confined to the North 
Temperate Zone. S. rufa , S. Neesii , S. nigripes, and S. clavata 
occur in Europe; the last-named species also occurs in the United 
States, while S.flava is confined to the last-named country. 
Key to the Species. 
I. Stem white or yellow. 
clavata. Ascigerous portion broadly obovate. 
fiava. Ascigerous portion narrowly elliptic-oblong. 
II. Stem dark-coloured. 
* Stem minutely velvety. 
velutipes. 
** Stem glabrous. 
nigripes. Stem violet-brown. 
rufa. Ascigerous portion obovate, margin even, powdered 
with lilac meal. 
Neesii. Ascigerous portion spathulate or sphaeroid, 
margin wavy. 
Spathularia clavata, Sacc., Mich, ii, 77, 1882; Sacc., Syll. viii, 
n. 160, 1889; Massee, Brit. Fung.-Flora, iv, 485, figs. 22-24 on 
p. 188; Rehm , Krypt.-Fl. n. 5877 , figs. 1-4 on p. 1146, 1896. 
(PI. XIII, Figs. 50-53.) 
Gregarious or in small clusters, entire fungus 3-10 cm, high, dry; 
ascigerous portion spathulate or broadly clavate, obtuse, or sometimes 
more or less cleft at the apex, laterally compressed, surface wavy or 
somewhat lacunose, margin crisped or undulated, running down the 
stem for some distance on opposite sides, hollow, clear yellow, rarely 
with a tinge of red, 2-4 cm. high, 1-2-5 cm - broad; stem |-i cm. 
thick, often thickened at the base, hollow, white, often becoming 
yellowish. Asci clavate, apex narrowed, pore blue with iodine, 
1 00-140 x 12-15 spores 8, arranged in a parallel fascicle in the 
ascus, hyaline, filiform -clavate, base narrowed, multiguttulate then 
multiseptate, enclosed in a mucilaginous sheath, often slightly bent, 
