96 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



conica, angusticeps. The separation of these four species, if such they all 

 are, is where doubt and confusion arise. Some of the plants were sent 

 to Professor Chas. H. Peck of the New York State Museum, who kindly 

 reported on the specimens, but without clearing up entirely the identity 

 of some of the doubtful ones. As the asci and spores do not furnish de- 

 cided specific characters, the species are founded mostly on the form 

 of the pileus and the shape of the pits and direction of the ridges. These 

 differences are shown on the chart, on which I have represented some 

 typical form of each species: 



Morchella esculenta (Linn.) Pers. the esculent morel, is easily known 

 by its light buff pileus, having a globular to ovoid form, the pits being of 

 about equal diameter in all directions. In young specimens the pileus 

 has a slight leaden hue. 



Morchella dcMciosa (Fr.), considered by some to be a variety of another 

 species, has a pileus approaching a cylinder in form, the pits being longer 

 and taking the longitudinal direction; otherwise it seems to closely ap- 

 proach M. esculenta, except in size. Only a few specimens of a typical 

 form and size were found. 



Morchella conica Pers. is distinguished by its large size and conical 

 form of pileus, also by having the ridges extending in many cases from 

 apex to base of pileus, these being connected by short transverse ridges 

 of lesser height. The pileus in our specimens has a brownish color, which, 

 with the long pits, makes the species tolerably distinct. The ascospores 

 are also usually a little smaller than those of the esculent morel. 



Morchella augusticeps. Pk. I have not been able to separate this spe- 

 cies readily from M. conica. In fact, good types of both were found in 

 an isolated group in the apple orchard. However, another lot of speci- 

 mens from the College woods consists of nearly all typical forms of the 

 narrow-cap morel. In these the stems were much longer than those 

 figured by Peck, but were identified by him as this species. The tpye of 

 this species is considerably smaller than that of the conical morel, and as 

 its name implies, the pileus is very narrow in proportion to the diameter 

 of the stem. 



Another uncertain form of morel was found early in the season and 

 photographed. The piieus is very variable in shape, but the larger ones 

 approach that of M. esculenta, while some of the smaller ones are more 

 like that of M. deliciosa, as are also the pits. 



Some of the specimens were sent to Professor Peck, but were not 

 named. He. however, recommended a careful search for and study of this 

 morel during the coming season. On March 25, of this year, a few speci- 

 mens were found in a new location, and on March 28, nearly fifty speci- 

 mens were found in the same location as last season. These early speci- 

 mens have no spores in the asci. Those found this season approach very 

 closely in general description the delicious morel, with the exceptions 

 of habitat and earliness of occurrence. This morel grows in rather low 

 woods, about the roots of black ash and poplar trees, in moss and decay- 

 ing wood, as well as on the ground. 



A single specimen of a morel answering quite well the description of 

 .¥. crassipes was found by Professor Wheeler. However, I did not feel 

 like taking one specimen as sufficient evidence of the occurrence of this 

 species. 



Group b. contains two well-marked species. 



