494 



MUSHROOMS, EDIBLE AND OTHERWISE 



Figure 417. Verpa digitaliformis. 



Gyromitra. Fr, 



Gyromitra is from gyro, to turn; mitra, a hat or bonnet. This genus is so 

 called because the plants look like a hood that is much wrinkled or plaited. 



Ascophore stipitate ; hymenophore sub-globose, inflated and more or less 

 hollow or cavernous, variously gyrose and convolute at the surface, which is 

 everywhere covered with the hymenium ; substance fleshy ; asci cylindrical, 8- 

 spored ; spores uniseriate, elongated, hyaline or nearly so, continuous ; paraphyses 

 present. Massee. 



Gyromitra esculenta. Fr. 



Esculenta means edible. This is the largest spore-sac fungus. The original 

 name was Helvella esculenta. It is bay-red, round, wrinkled or convoluted, 

 attached to the stem, irregular, with brain-like convolutions. 



The stem is hollow when mature, often very much deformed, whitish, scurvy, 

 frequently enlarged or swollen at the base, sometimes lacunose, frequently atten- 

 uated upward, at first stuffed; asci cylindrical, apex obtuse, base attenuated, 

 8-spored; spores obliquely uniseritate, hyaline, smooth, continuous, elliptical, 17- 

 25x9-1 i/x; paraphases numerous. 



This plant will be readily recognized from Figure 418, and its bay-red or 

 chestnut-red cap with its brain-like convolutions. The books speak of its being 



