TAB. CCCCII. 



MERULIUS IIELVELLOIDES. 



Gathered in November, 1808, by Miss Rackett, 

 who obligingly sent me specimens from Spetisbury, in 

 Dorsetshire. I was much surprised, when it first took 

 my attention, to see so regular an Ifehella with a 

 smooth surface beneath ; but on a more attentive exa- 

 mination I discovered veins beneath, which however 

 are very inconspicuous, and only close to the edge of 

 the pileus, projecting very little, but sometimes inoscu- 

 lating or branching, or having a shorter one of about a 

 line in length intervening with the larger ones, which are 

 about two or three lines in length. Three parts of the 

 under side are characteristic of Helvella, and the fourth of 

 Merulius ; and this is the first species I have seen w^hicli 

 seems a tie or uniting link between the two genera. 



The specimens grew in a fir wood, as the leaves about 

 them show, and there was a chalky marie about the root. 



TAB. CCCCIII. 



MERULIUS LAMELLOSUS. 



J^ADY Wilson gathered this undescribed Fungus at 

 the bottom of a rotten bin in a cellar at Charlton House, 

 Kent. When growing, it is perhaps one of the most 

 elegant of the Fungus tribe, as it appears that a large 

 cluster of it was found growing almost in every varied 

 direction. The elastic, delicate, and soft leather-like 

 'pileus assumes a colour from perfect white to a pale 

 yellow or buff. The pale veins beneath the smaller 

 parts, and the browner older parts relieving them on 

 a dark ground in the cellar, must have an extraordinary 

 effect. The veins are deepish, and inosculate very 

 much, and sometimes resemble the sets of lamellae of 

 the Agarics. In examining them Avith a hioh mafrnifier 

 they appear clothed with hairs and glands— see the 

 right hand figures^ In colour and texture the Fungus 

 has altogether a strong resemblance to Boletus lachry- 

 jna77s, or Common Dry-rot," tab. 113, in some states. 



