The Morels and Puff-Balls of Madison. 105 



THE MORELS AND PUFF-BALLS OF MADISON. 



By WILLIAM TRELEASE. 



To facilitate the work of collectors engaged with the cryptogamic botany 

 of the state, a preliminary list of the parasitic fungi of "Wisconsin was pre- 

 sented to the Academy at its meeting in the winter of 1882." In continu- 

 ation of that list, the following descriptions of non-j)arasitic species are 

 offered for publication. The groups that have been selected are not closely 

 related, as might have been inferred from then- treatment in a single paper, 

 nor do they include many species: but tliey possess some general interest 

 because the majority of the species are edible, and they derive scientific 

 interest from the fact that their discrimination is attended with consider- 

 able difficulty. 



Several correspondents have favored me with their collections for study, 

 and I am under especial obhgation in this respect to Dr. J. J. BroA\Ti of 

 Sheboygan. The names that have been adopted rest upon a comparison of 

 our specimens with the rich collections of Professors C..H. Peck, of the 

 Kew York State Museum, and W. G. Farlow, of Harvard University, the 

 latter of wliich includes the Curtis herbarium, and hence contains tyj)es of 

 the species of Berkeley and Curtis, described in Grevillea. My thanks are 

 also due these gentlemen for the use of pa^Ders not otherwise accessible to 

 me, and for opinions on doubtful forms. Similar opinions have also been 

 given by the late Dr. G. Winter, of Comrewitz, Germany, Professor P. Mag- 

 nus, of BerUn, and Dr. M. C. Cooke, and Mr. George Massee, of London; but 

 for the nomenclature adopted I am personally responsible. While it is be- 

 lieved that the names employed are in accordance with the opinion of the 

 best authorities on American fungi, it is by no means certain that refer- 

 ences to the older European names are in all instances above suspicion, for 

 many descriptions and figures are insufficient, and the paucity of authen- 

 tic specimens, as well as the poor state of preservation of some of those 

 extant, contribute to the general uncertainty. 



I. MORELS. 

 Order ASCOMYCETES. Sub-Order Discomycetes. 



The popular name of Morel corresponds to the genus Morchella, which 

 comprises fleshy fungi with a rather stout lioUow stem, bearing at the top 

 a dilated round or conical head, reticulated by i^rominent ridges that sepa- 



' Transactions, vi, 106. Reprints of the jjaper were issued early in November 1884, iq 

 advance of the volume. 



