8 



Fig. 7. Mitrula sclerotipes Boudier. 



The cap in this species is small, and the stem long and slender. The 

 spores are transparent, the asci club-shaped. The plants of this species 

 are always found springing from an oblong sclerotium ; hence the name 

 sclerotipes. 



Fig. 8 represents the sporidia enclosed in their asci with paraphyses 

 and individual spores, the latter magnified 800 diameters. Fig. 9, sec- 

 tional view of mature plant. 



Fig. 10. Mitrula vitellina Saac, var. irregularis Peck. 



Saccardo, in his Sylloge Fungorum, includes in this genus those 

 having a club-shaped cap, which brings into it, with others, the species 

 Mitrula vitellina Sacc, formerly classed in the genus Geoglossum, and 

 its variety irregularis Peck. The latter was first described in 1879, in 

 Peck's Thirty-Second Report, under the name Geoglossum irregulare. 

 Prof. Peck now gives preference to the name assigned to it by Saccardo, 

 and it is so recorded in Peck's later reports. 



Prof. Peck records this species as edible, and recommends it as having 

 tender flesh and an agreeable flavor. It sometimes grows in profusion 

 in wet mossy places, in woods, or swampy ground. It is bright yellow 

 in color, clean and attractive. The cap is much longer than the stem, 

 often deeply lobed, extremely irregular in outline, and tapers to a short 

 yellowish or whitish stem. The spores are narrowly elliptical and trans- 

 parent. The specimen illustrated is from a small one figured by Peck. 

 The plants sometimes reach two inches in height. They are most abun- 

 dant in temperate climates. 



Plate D. 



In Plate D are represented four species of the genus Morchella, viz., 

 M. semilibera, M. bispora, M. conica, and M. deliciosa. Morchella 

 esculenta is figured in Plate C. 



Fig. 1. Morchella semilibera De CandoUe. " Half Free MoreV 



Edible. 



Cap conical but half free from the stem as the name of the species 

 indicates. The ribs are longitudinal, forming oblong pits ; stem hollow, 

 much longer than the cap, white ; spores elliptical. Peck says that this 

 species has been described by Persoon under the name Morchella hyhrida, 

 and this name is adopted in Saccardo's Sylloge Fungorum, but most 

 English writers prefer the first. 



Fig. 2. Sectional view of Morchella semilibera. 



Fig. 8. Sporidia of same inclosed in ascus with accompanying 

 paraphyses. 



