HBLVELLA. 



465 



In pine woods, among moss, &c. 



Specimen from Fries examined. 



The present species has by some 

 authorities been placed in the 

 genus Peziza, used in the broader 

 sense, on account of the concave 

 or cup-shaped form of the young 

 ascophore, but the entire structure 

 is that of Helvella. 



Helvella atra. Konig, 

 Zoega. Fl. Isl., p. 20; Cke., Mycogr., 

 fig. 167 ; Phil., Brit Disc., p. 1H ; 

 Sacc., SylL, viii. n. 81. 



Solitary, sooty-black or black 

 with a purple shade ; pileus droop- 

 ing on opposite sides, depressed at 

 the centre, usually free from the 

 stem at the sides but close to it, 

 thin, dingy grey when dry, even 

 underneath and minutely furfu- 

 raceous, dingy grey, 1-5-2-5 cm. 

 across; margin inclined to turn 

 upwards ; stem 3-5 cm. long, about 

 ^- mm. thick, often slightly thick- 

 ened and more or less lacunose near 

 the base, which is greyish-olive, 

 remainder black, furfuraceo-villose, 

 stuffed ; hypothecium and excipu- 

 lum formed of hyaline, densely 

 interwoven hyphae which pass into 

 a large celled, parenchymatous 

 cortex, the external cells of which 

 run out in chains, clusters of which 



Helvella helvelloides, Mass. Section 

 through the ascophore ; the hypothecium 

 (1) is formed of densely interwoven 

 branched septate hyphae ; at the central 

 portion the texture is looser, and changes 

 at the cortex (2) into a parenchyma of 

 polygonal cells, many of which run out 

 into hairs forming the scurfy exterior. 



VOL. IV. 



