The Morels and Puff Balls of Madison. 107 



shaped, its lower half free from the stipe, longitudinally ribbed but with 

 few transverse ridges. Spores about 17x37 ;<. — Damp shady woods, in 

 spring; less common than the first. 



Two species of De CandoUe are included under this name: the first, M. 

 semilibera, with a smooth stem; the second, M. rimosijpes, furfuraceous. 

 If they are distinct, our plant belongs to the latter, though the first has 

 usually been recognized as the American plant. Vittadini ' could not separ- 

 ate these forms, nor am I able to do so. The character of the stipe is too 

 inconstant to be of value, at least in herbarium specimens, for watery 

 plants, grown in wet weather, often have their translucent stems api^arently 

 nearly or quite smooth when pressed. Both forms are represented in English 

 specimens distributed by Broome - as M. semilibera. M. patida P. , if dis- 

 tinct, seems to be characterized chiefly by the greater prominence of trans- 

 verse ridges, making the depressions of the j)ileus more regularly polygonal. 

 M. bispora Sow., with a free pendent pileus, which is found in New York,^ 

 may be distinguished, if it also occurs in Wisconsin, by having 2-s]3ored asci. 



M. esculenta is esteemed for the table by most persons, and has usually 

 been held to be entirely free from the noxious properties resident in many 

 fungi. Under some conditions, however, the plants may develop poisonous 

 principles; and when eaten raw, or even if the water has not been changed 

 while cooking them, they occasionally give rise to indigestion or symptoms 

 of poisoning. This is especially true of specimens gathered in wet weather, 

 and of those which are past their prime or have been kept too long before 

 cooking, for like all fleshy fungi they are readily putrescible. But where 

 proper care is taken in selecting and cooking the specimens, the morel 

 forms an excellent reUsh and is one of the safest of edible fungi. What 

 has been said of this species applies generally to the genus Morcliella, but 

 I have eaten none of the other species.* 



The only fungi that are likely to be confounded with morels are certain 

 related genera, fleZi'eWa ' and Gyromitrix, — which pi'oduce asco-spores on 

 the exterior of the folded but not reticulately ribbed or pitted pileus; — and 

 the stink-horn fungi, — species of the basidiomycetous genus Plialhi.'i.'' Most 

 of the former ai'e edible. No person possessing the sense of smell is likely 



1 I. c. 114. 



' Rabenhersfs Fungi Europaei, Xo. 141". 



'Peck; 30 Rep. N. Y. Museum, .58. 



■• For an abstract of recent papers on the necessity for caution in preparing morels, see 

 Bot. Centralblatt, xx. 243, and a paper by Bohm and Kiilz, in Archiv. fiir experiment. 

 Patliologie und Pharmakologie, xix. Heft. 6 (Abst. in Bot. Zeitung, 1S8G, G43-4).— Useful 

 recipes for the preparation of these fungi will be found in R611: Die 24 hiiuflgsten essbaren 

 Pilze. Tubingen, 41-.5. 



' Helvella crispa (sometimes said to be poisonous) occurs in open woods about Matlison, 

 in late summer and fall. 



' P. cluplicatus Bosc, is common about Madison in summer and autumn, in lawns, grass 

 by the roadside, etc.; and P. ccminus has been collected at La Crosse by Mr. L. H. Pamrael. 



