Helvellacese 



H. Califor'nica Phillips. PiletlS bell-shaped or saddle-shaped, de- Heiveiia. 

 flexed, sublobate, free, veined beneath, purplish-brown. Stem longi- 

 tudinally pitted between ridges, rosy-pink. Asci cylindrical, narrowed 

 toward the base. Sporidia 8, elliptical, binucleate, i/xQ/u,; paraphyses 

 linear, clavate and brown at the apices. 



2-6 in. in diameter. Stem 2-6 in. high, .75-1.5 in. in diameter. 



On the earth in dense forests near rocks. Sierra Nevada mountains; 

 California, Harkness. 



Edible. Harkness. 



It presents characters essentially different from those of any species 

 hitherto described. Its nearest ally is H. crispa, from which it differs 

 in the color of the hymenium and stem and in being a larger species. 



H. lacuno'sa Afzel. uneven, pitted. Pileus inflated, lobed, cinere- 

 ous-black, lobes deflexed, adnate. Stem white or dusky, hollow, ex- 

 terior ribbed, forming intervening cavities ; asci cylindrical, stemmed; 

 sporidia ovate, hyaline. 



Solitary or gregarious ; very variable in size. 



North Carolina, Curtis; Massachusetts, Sprague, Frost; White 

 mountains, Farloiv; Rhode Island, Bennett; California, H '. and M '. 



Edible. Cordier, Berkeley, Bad/iam, Cooke, Curtis. 



H. SUlca'ta Afzel. furrowed. Pileus deflexed, equally 2-3 lobed, 

 even, compressed, darker when dry. Stem 2 in. long, 4-5 lines thick, 

 stuffed, equal, longitudinally furrowed. Spores very broadly elliptic, 

 with a single large globose nucleus, 15-18/4 long B. and Br. 



Solitary, rarely gregarious. 



Var. minor Clem. Bot. Surv. of Neb. Univ. of Neb. Pileus .81.2 

 in., rarely 3.2 in. wide, .8-2 in. high. Stem .8-1.2 in., rarely 4 in. 

 high, .61.4 in. wide; sporidia 15x10^. 



On shady ground. Otowanie woods, Lancaster county. 



The prominent character in this species, as indicated by the name, is 

 the sulcate stem. The furrows are very deep, and extend, without 

 interruption, the entire length of the stem. The whole stem, as shown 

 by a cross-section, is made up of the costae intervening between these 

 furrows. I do not find the stem "stuffed," as required by the descrip- 

 tion in Syst. Myc., Vol. II, p. 15. The pileus is generally darker than 

 that of H. crispa. Peck, 3ist Rep. N. Y. State Bot. 



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