28 The North American Cup-Fungi 



room. Of the twenty-three specimens In our collections, nineteen 

 were collected in May while the remainder which were obtained 

 in April are usually from the southern states although they may 

 occur in the north during the latter part of April if the season is 

 an early one. 



The morel is often found in abundance. Underwood (Trans. 

 Ind. Hort. Soc. 1893: 63, 1894) reports having gathered eighty- 

 two fruiting bodies around an old stump in his back yard in 

 Indiana, and in an apple orchard, twice as many. He refers 

 to the morel as " a storehouse of nitrogenous food as luscious 



Fig. 15. Gyromitra esculenta gyrose form of Elvela infula. 

 Photograph by P. J. Anderson. 



as an oyster and for an equal weight containing even more 

 nutritious matter." In the same article he states: "It is safe 

 to say that the total natural production of morels in the state 

 of Indiana during each spring is not less than 50,000 bushels, 

 and may be easily double that. These, in a fair market, are 

 worth $200,000 and in the best markets would command a 

 much higher price. With the exception of a fev/ plants eaten 

 here and there by a family, this wealth of food, so much esteemed 

 in foreign countries by peasant and wealthy epicure alike, is 

 shamefully allowed to go to waste. The peasants of Germany 

 call the fungi "manna of the poor" while the ancient Greeks 

 justly regarded them as "food of the gods." Any bright boy 



