106 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 



rate coarse depressions. This head, or i^ileus, is covered externally by 

 elongated sterile bodies (paraphyses) and oblong spore-sacs (asci), both mi- 

 croscopic. In our species the asci contain eight elKpsoidal spores each; but 

 others are known in which only two spores are found in each ascus. — The 

 two species that have been collected about Madison are distinguished by the 

 character of the i)ileus. 



Pileus aduate to the stipe, coarsely pitted M. esculenta. 



Pileus free, at least for its lower lialf, longitudinally ribbed M. hybrida. 



1. MORCHELLA ESCULENTA (Micli.) — Stipe stout, somewhat mealy or 

 furfuraceous. Pileus variable, round to conical, regularly and coarsely 

 pitted. Spores 10— 13.5 Xl7— 33/f .— Mostly in white oak woods, in the spring. 

 Reported in Bundy's list of Wisconsin fungi. ' 



In the commonest form the plant is two to four inches high, with the 

 stipe and pileus of nearly equal length; the latter oblong, obtuse, and not 

 much dilated. Another type, which is not uncommon, is rather shorter, 

 with the pileus considerably dilated and nearly spherical. In a less fre- 

 quent form it is elongated and decidedly conical. All are found in open dry 

 woods, and are most abundant under or near white oak trees {Quercus alha).- 



Occasionally they are found in meadows, and I once collected a number 

 of unusually large specimens on the side of a high, gravelly railroad em- 

 bankment, in company with Equisetum arveuse. entirely removed from 

 trees of any kind. Young specimens, with an elongated smoky pileus, the 

 tops of the ridges only being pale, agree with var. cylindrica as figured by 

 Vittadini ^ who recognized it as an immature state. 



Figures: — Cooke, Mycographia, i, pi. 81, f. 312. Exsiccatae: — Ravenel, 

 Fungi Carol, i. no. 36; Ellis, N. A. Fungi, no. 979. 



Other similar species referred to by writers on American fungi are M. 

 crassipes Fr. (Bull. Washburn Laboratory, i, 70), M. elata Fr. (GreviUea, 

 iii, 149; BuU. Buffalo Soc, ii, 286), M. deliciosa Fr. (30 Rep. N. Y. Museum, 

 58), and 31. conica P. (Mycographia, i. pi. 81, f. 315; Cat. Pac. Coast fungi, 

 33; Bull. Washburn Lab. i, 70. — 31. esculenta, var. conica of Bull. Buffalo 

 Soc. ii, 286 and Curtis, Catalogue, 131). The first two are large, the first, 

 especially, with a much inflated stipe; the others are sraaller and more 

 delicate. Perhaps one or more of them occur among the Madison speci- 

 mens, but I am unable to separate our plants by any constant or good 

 characters. 



3. MoRCHELLA HYBRIDA (Sow.) P. — Stipe usually slender (one-fourth to 

 one-half inch), furfuraceous or smoothish, with more or less red-brown trans- 

 verse striation. Pileus short (three-fourths inch or less), conical or thimble 



1 Report. Geol. Surv. Wis., Vol. 1, p. 401. 



2 Harkners and Moore speak of M. esculenta as growing imder oaks ("Cat. Pacific Coast 

 Fungi, 33). James finds it usually under the ash (Ohio Agric. Rep., 1881, 97). According 

 to Peck, the commonest form about Albany is found under or in the vicinity of pines (38 

 Rep. N. Y. Museum, 86), and Day also finds it under conifers (Cat. Buffalo Plants, 152). 



3 Descrizione dei funghi mangerecci piti communi dell' ItaUa, 105, note, pi. 13, f . 4-5. 



