[Illustration: Plate 56. Fleshy but firm fungi: Spores pale-coloured and borne on club-shaped fruit-bodies] ~Clavaria vermicularis~ Fries White spindles _Cap_: absent. _Fruit-body_: width 6-10 mm; length 50-85 mm. _Description_: Plate 56. Simple or very rarely branched, but not forked below the soil-level, densely tufted, spindle-shaped, pure white with sharp, often slightly brownish, tips, when old it is wavy, often twisted, compressed and fragile. Stem: absent. Flesh: whitish. Spore-print: white. Spores: small, pip-shaped, smooth, hyaline under the microscope, 4-5 × 3 µm in size, and not becoming bluish grey in iodine solutions. Cystidia: absent. _Habitat_ & _Distribution_: Common in autumn amongst grass in fields, less frequent in woods. _General Information_: _Clavulinopsis fusiformis_ (Fries) Corner, ‘Golden spindles’ is similar to _C. vermicularis_, but forms dense tufts of canary-yellow, very fragile clubs joined in 2’s or 3’s below the soil level; the spores are also slightly different, being almost globose, hyaline under the microscope and 5-7 µm in diameter. _Clavaria fumosa_ Fries is similar to _C. vermicularis_ and forms tufts of very fragile mouse-grey clubs with brownish tips; it produces elongate ellipsoid spores measuring 6-8 × 3-4 µm which are hyaline under the microscope. _C. vermicularis_ and _C. fumosa_ differ from _Clavulinopsis_ in hyphal construction, but the differences are rather difficult to demonstrate to the beginner. _Clavulinopsis helvola_ favours similar habits to _C. fusiformis_ and although yellow in colour differs in the more orange-yellow colouration, but more particularly in the spores being rounded, 5-6 µm in diameter with large angular spines. The earth-tongues, i.e. members of the family _Geoglossaceae_ which are also found in pastures belong to an unrelated group of fungi, the Ascomycetes. If the clubs are crushed and examined under the microscope rows of sacs (asci) containing long thread-like ascospores are found--no basidia are to be seen. _Illustrations_: _Clav. fusiformis_--WD 104⁹. _C. vermicularis_--WD 104¹⁰. _C. fumosa_--Hvass 303; WD 104¹¹. _Clav. helvola_--Hvass 300; WD 105¹. [Illustration: Plate 57. Club-shaped and coral fungi] ~Clavulinopsis corniculata~ (Fries), Corner (p. 171). _Cap_: absent. _Fruit-body_: complex; width 20-30 mm; length 20-40 mm. _Description_: Plate 57. Fruit-body: shape depending on the length of grass in which it grows but always branching strongly from its base, composed of a dense compact tuft of egg-yellow or orange-tawny branches which are either irregular or of equal length and so they form a flattened top to the fruit-body complex, the branchlets are slender, forked 2- or 3-times, with their apices narrowed or curved. Stem: very downy at the base. Flesh: pale yellow. Spore-print: white.