BEPOBT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 227 



Care should be taken by those eating it to use it with moder- 

 ation and not to cook very old or long-kept specimens. Sickness 

 has been known to result from eating freely of specimens that 

 had been kept twenty-four hours before being cooked. When 

 old and beginning to dry, the cap is apt to assume a darker or 

 brown color. Often the lower or unexposed surface of the cap 

 is paler than that which is more exposed to wind and sun. 



Helvella L. 

 In the genus Helvella the cap is neither pitted nor convolutely 

 lobed, but it is, nevertheless, quite irregular and variously 

 reflexed, revolute or contorted so that in no two individuals, even 

 of the same species, does it appear exactly alike. The stem in 

 some species is stout and conspicuously marked by longitudinal 

 grooves or furrows and their intervening ribs or ridges. In some 

 species these furrows are continuous, in others, some of them are 

 interrupted or short. In one or two species the stems are slender 

 and even. All the species are rather small and scarce. They 

 grow chiefly in woods and do not appear as early in the season 

 as the morels and the Edible helvella. Though all are deemed 

 edible I have not found them in sufficient quantity to verify their 

 edible qualities and will describe only one of them. 



Helvella crispa Fr. 

 White Helvella. 



Plate 5. Fig8. 4 to 7. 



Pileus deflexed, lobed or variously contorted, white or whitish; 

 stem equal or slightly swollen at the base, deeply and interruptedly 

 grooved, white or whitish; spores elliptical, .ou07 to .0009 inch long. 



The White helvella is distinguished from all other helvellas by 

 its white or whitish color and by its peculiar stem, which is 

 strongly ribbed and deeply grooved, the grooves or furrows being 

 interrupted and varying much in length. A transverse section 

 of the stem shows that it contains several longitudinal cavities or 

 hollows. The cap is scarcely alike in any two individuals. 

 Often it is lobed or contorted in such a way as to form two or 

 more projecting points. 



The plant is two to four inches high and the stem from one- 

 fourth to one-half an inch thick. It grows in woods in August 

 and September, but is not often plentiful. 



