Holocoryne (Gr—entire; a club). Page [524].
Clubs almost simple, distinct at the base.
Excepting to toadstool hunters the Clavaria, though numerous, are not known to those who “Know a toadstool when they see it.” They bear no semblance to the stereotyped toadstool. They seem to possess an imitative faculty. Those growing among grasses harmonize with the faded stalks under debris or the bleached surfaces of blades famishing for sunlight; those of the woods take on the color of the leaf mat or of the lichens, and shapes of club and deer-horn mosses, or assemble in groves as pigmy trees, boled and sturdy-branched in mimicry of their giant protectors towering above them. In their forms many are delicate, graceful, beautiful, others are intricate. There is fascination for eye and brain in looking through the vistas and labyrinths of their branches.
A few species are tough as shoe-strings; a few bitter; one, C. dichotoma, on the authority of Leuba, contains a minor poison. The genus is plentiful and reliable. Many individuals are of marked excellence. In soups, stews, patties, they remind one of noodles; sometimes of macaroni. The hard parts of the stem should be removed, the branches broken or cut in ½ in. lengths. If stewed, they require time and slow cooking; if fried in butter they are crisp, choice bits.
Rama´ria—ramus, a branch.
Branched, branches attenuated upward.
A. Spores White or Pallid.
* Plant, color bright, red, yellow or violet.
C. fla´va Schaeff.—yellow. Fragile, trunk thick, fleshy, white, very much branched. Branches even, round, fastigiate, obtuse, yellow. Fries.
Height 2–4 in., 2–4 in. across; pale-yellow, dingy-yellow. Stem or trunk short, robust, whitish. Branches very numerous, dense, fragile, erect, straight, lighter than the yellow tips (fading with age) which are toothed. Flesh white. Spores white. Taste and odor pleasant.