314 



RESEARCHES ON FUNGI 



Morchella crassipes and M. esculenta (Fig. 152), irregularly rounded 

 and plicate within ; in M. rotunda, irregularly quadrangular ; in 

 M. conica, M. deliciosa (Fig. 154), M. angusticeps (Fig. 155), M. costata, 

 M. elata, and Mitrophora hybrida, much elongated and divided 

 transversely into secondary alveoli.^ 



Each hymenivfm-lined alveolus of a 

 Morchella or of a Mitrophora, whether it be 

 rounded, polygonal, or elongated, is com- 

 parable with the single hymenium-lined 

 cavity that is characteristic of cupulate 

 Pezizeae, e.g. Galactinia hadia and Lachnea 

 hemispherica ; and we can therefore think of 

 such a fruit-body as that of Morchella conica 

 or M. crassipes as being constructed, as it 

 were, of a series of Peziza-cups which have 

 coalesced to form a conical-ovate compound 

 structure. To discover the secret of the 

 escape of the spores from a Morchella fruit- 

 body it is necessary to investigate the alveoU 

 individually and to find out how the asci in 

 their walls are arranged and in what direction 

 they point. Such an investigation has been 

 made on the fruit-bodies of both Morchella 

 conica and M. crassipes. 



In June, 1925, at Winnipeg, at my re- 

 quest, my colleague Mr. C. W. Lowe obtained 

 some fruit-bodies of Morchella conica and 

 investigated them whilst they were still fresh 



Fig. 155. — A fruit-body of Morchella angusticeps: The 

 primary pits (alveoli) of the jiileiis are (livided 

 transversely into secondary pits. Collected at 

 Ottawa by W. S. Odell. Photographed by the 

 Photographic Division of the Geological Survey 

 of Canada. Natural size. 



^ For descriptions and excellent coloured illustrations of these species, except 

 M. deliciosa which is not illustrated and M. esculenta which he has split up into 

 M. rotunda and M. vulgaris, vide fi. Boudier's Icones Mycologicae, Tomes II and IV, 

 Paris, 1905-1910. 



