480 FUNGUS-FLORA. 



base attenuated, 8-spored ; spores obliquely uniseriate, 

 hyaline, smooth, continuous, elliptical, ends obtuse, often 

 2-guttulate, 1725 x 9-11 p,; paraphyses numerous, the 

 upper half gradually becoming broader, 56 //. thick at the 

 apex and brownish, septate. 



Helvetia esculenta, Pers., Comm., p. 64 ; Badham, Esc. 

 Fung., ii. t. 12, figs. 3-5. 



On the ground, sandy or scorched places, under pines, &c. 



Gyromitra esculenta, though frequently eaten, is not always 

 safe, a circumstance which may depend rather on peculiarity 

 of constitution than on any intrinsically deleterious property. 

 (Berk.) 



MITRULA. Fries (emended), (figs. 29, 30, p. 188). 



Ascophore stipitate, fleshy ; head subglobose, ovate, or 

 clavate, even, glabrous, everywhere covered with the hy- 

 menium, adnate throughout to the more or less elongated 

 stem; asci cylindric-clavate, 8-spored; spores narrowly 

 elliptic-fusiform, hyaline, continuous or septate, irregularly 

 1-2-seriate ; paraphyses present. 



Miirula. Fries, Syst. Myc., i. p. 491 Sacc., Syll., viii. p. 

 32 ; Phil., Brit. Disc., p. 26. 



Leptoglossum, Cooke, Mycogr., p. 250 ; Phil., Brit. Disc., p. 

 31 ; Sacc., Syll., viii. p. 47 (all in part). 



Geoglossum in the older sense included all the clavate 

 species, some of which had coloured, others hyaline spores. 

 Karsten revised the genus and limited Geoglossum to those 

 species with coloured spores ; this change was objected to by 

 Cooke Mycogr., p, 1 as being quite unnecessary ; how- 

 ever, in the same book, p. 250, Cooke accepted the revision 

 made by Karsten Myc. Fenn., p, 7 and suggested the 

 name of Leptoglossum for the residue of the ancient Geo- 

 glossum having hyaline spores. This breaking up of the old 

 genus Geoglossum into two genera was not only justified by 

 the colour of the spores, but also by their arrangement in 

 the ascus. The coloured spores are in all cases very long, 

 and arranged in a parallel fascicle in the ascus, whereas the 

 hyaline spores are always comparatively short, and conse- 

 quently arranged in a 1-2-seriate manner in the ascus. 



Finally, Saccardo Syll., viii. p. 32 defines Mitrula by 



