94 THE MORELL. 



rising, became finally detached from the wrapper in 

 every part excepting at the points of the clefts, where 

 it remained fixed ; in the same manner as a man might 

 be supposed able to pull up 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 diffi- 

 cult to find, but is a much more common plant, delight- 

 ing 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 esculenta),* but to 

 this I must subjoin " rarissime." Bolton and Micheli 

 represent the pileus as cellular, like a honeycomb. All 

 that I have seen are mesenterically 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 campanulata) is 

 common with us, the smooth (nidularia laevis) is much 

 less so. I do not mention them on account of their 

 rarity, but to notice the singular size of the seeds of 

 this genus. The principle, by which nearly the whole 

 of the fungi are continued, is in most instances obscure. 

 A dust, considered as seminal, is observable in some 

 of the genera; in others, even this is imperceptible; 

 but in the nidularia the actual seeds, for they are not 



* 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. 



