THE MORELL. 



the skin from the hollow of the hand, and let it 

 remain attached at the tips of the fingers. This 

 puff dries remarkably well, and even shows the 

 general form more distinctly than when recent. 



The starry puff (lycoperdon stellatum) is rather 

 difficult to find, but is a much more common plant, 

 delighting to grow amidst the herbage of some dry 

 bank, and so is hidden from common observation ; 

 but the winds of autumn detach it from the banks, 

 and it remains driving about the pastures, little 

 altered until spring, when it decays. 



We have the morell (morchella esculentd) *, but 

 to this I must subjoin *' rarissime." Bolton and 

 Micheli represent the pileus as cellular, like a 

 honeycomb. All that I have seen are mesenteri- 

 cally puckered. In what part of this morell the 

 seeds reside is obscure : not in the hollows of the 

 pileus, I think. That part of our morell, which in 

 an agaric would be flesh, is found by the microscope 

 to consist of fine woolly fibres united in a mass : 

 and probably the seed is contained in this part ; 

 for when the plant is mature^ and begins to dry, 

 the outer coating cracks, and tears these filaments 

 asunder, and gives the seminal matter, if contained 

 in this part, a free passage for escape. 



The bell-shaped nidularia (nidularia campa- 

 nulat'a) is common with us, the smooth (nidularia 



* This is the phallus esculentus of some ; but Jussieu, Persoon, 

 and others, have removed it from that genus, on account of its 

 having no volva, but seeds in cells, not contained in a glareous 

 mucus. 



