268 



Mr. Smith described his original specimen as 12 inches in height and 7 inches 

 in diameter. The pileus was 6 inches high, and the stem 3^ inches thick at the 

 base. Two or three specimens were sent from Yorkshire, in May, 1884, nearly of 

 these dimensions, but they were said to be the smallest specimens, for some boys 

 having found them had broken up the largest, and scattered the fragments over 

 the road. Morchella gigas does not attain to an equal size. 

 Helvella lacuiwsa. Ft. 



The usual size of this species is about 3.^ inches hiiifh, with a pileus 1.^ inches 

 high and about an inch broad, with a stem from | to ^ inch in thickness. It is 

 often smaller. A year or two since I found a number of specimens in Monk's 

 Wood, Epping Forest, which were five inches high, with a pileus of 3^ inches by 

 23 in diameter, with a short stem 1 J inches thick. Two or three years since I 

 collected similar specimens at Penicuik, near Edinburgh, so that it is probable 

 these dimensions will yet be exceeded. 



This brings me to the end of my present list, which might have been extended 

 considerably at the risk of becoming tedious. Perhaps it is not of much practical 

 utility, except as an insinuation that size must be accepted with great caution as 

 an element in the discrimination of species. Two or three instances have been 

 produced in which large individuals of particular species have been found in 

 places known to have been occupied by the same species for consecutive years. 

 Can it be concluded from this that the growth of a species on a definite spot 

 becomes more vigorous in proportion to the period of its occupation ? and if so, 

 why? It may not be altogether absurd to keep this enquiry in view, and to 

 repeat the observations. 



