The flavor of the Gyromitras is (juite strong, imd some have found it too 

 luiK'li so to be agreeable on the first eating. The general opinion here, Low- 

 ever, is favorable to the Gyromitra as an excellent addition to the table." 



Some German authorities speak well of the flavor of the G. eseulenta, 

 and it is sold iu the German markets. Cordier records it as agreeable in 

 taste when cooked. Peck says that he has repeatedly eaten it without 

 experiencing any evil results, but does not consider its flavor equal to 

 that of a first-class mushroom. He advises also that it should be eaten 

 with moderation, and that only perfectly fresh specimens should be used, 

 sickness having resulted from eating freely of specimens that liad l>een 

 kept twenty-four hours before being cooked. 



I have not been fortunate in securing a sufficient quantity of fresh 

 specimens to test its edible qualities personally, but the testimony received 

 from those who have eaten it seems to point to the necessity for modera- 

 tion in eating and care in securing fresh specimens to cook. 



Fig. 5. Helvella crispa. ''Crixp Ilelvella.''^ 



Genus Helvella Linn. The plants of this genus are usually small, 

 though a few of the species are of good size. They are not plentiful, but 

 they are very generally regarded as edible, the flavor bearing a resem- 

 blance to that of the Morel. The cap has a smooth, not polished, surface, 

 and is very irregular, revolute, and deflexed, not honeycombed like the 

 Morel, nor showing the brain-like convolutions of the Gyromitras. Color 

 brownish pale tan, or whitish. The stem in the larger species is stout, 

 and sometimes deeply furrowed in longitudinal grooves, usually white or 

 whitish. 



The species Helvella crispa is white or pallid throughout, cap very 

 irregular, sometimes deeply concave in the centre, with margin at first 

 erect, then drooping ; again it is undulating, much divided and deflexed ; 

 in fact, so irregular is the shape that scarcely two specimens will show 

 the cap the same in outline ; stem stout and deeply channelled. Spores 

 elliptical, transparent. Habitat woods, growing singly or in groups, but 

 not coespitose. 



Fig. 6, the ascus or spore sack and paraphesis. 



Genus Mitvula Fries. Soft and fleshy, simple capitate, stem distinct, 

 hymenium surrounding the inflated cap; head ovate, obtuse, inflated. — 

 M. C. Cooke. 



Cooke says of this genus that it is scarcely so well characterized as 

 many with which it is associated, and that some of the species are evi- 

 dently so closely allied to some of the species of the genus Geoglossum 

 that it is difficult to draw the line of demarcation between them, particu- 

 larly so with the species ^liivwlix pistUlaris B. from Louisiana. 



The plants are very small, and though none are recorded as poisonous, 

 only one or two have any value as esculents. 



