GYROMITRA GIGAS (KROMBH.) COOKE, 131 
und bildet da, wo der Zellendurchmesser sehr gering ist, eine 
Hinsicht der Grésse als des Dystanaes verschieden ; er ist um vi 
hoher als der Hut selbst, und die Hutlappen gehen em bis auf 
die Hirde herab, oder in das untere Drittheil des Str 
“Das Mycelium scheint die unmittelbare Vatlbtgokea des 
nkes zu seyn, und ist gleichfalls zellig, wachsartig, und 
verbreitet fei tief in die rde. ahe dem Mycelium, oder 
vielmehr ihm aufwarts, ist der Strunk sammtartig, weiss, 
welcher hasvekicaes Uebareak héher hinauf _ zart wird. 
rer Grésse wegen zur Speise sehr anwendbar ; 
in der Nahe von Prag vor. Sie lisst sich an der t gut trocknen, 
der Hut wird iaukabenes. der Strunk aber bleibt weiss und dicht.’’* 
In July, 1891, Mrs. 8. Coker Beck, of Crowell Rectory, sent 
me some specimens of an unkn a and remarkable fungus gathered 
at Sherbourne, Oxfordshire, on Lord Macclesfield’s property, in a 
field on a hill- side, under beech trees, having so. mewhat the appear- 
ance of Sparassis crispa. The pilei varied in size from 8 in. to 8 ft. 
in circumference, being in form globose, hemispherical, fate, 
or irregular ; in a young stage the folds of the hymenium were of 
the typical form of Gyromitra, but when older eo! iar flattened 
into broad pendent crisped flounces, resembling fig. 827 in Cooke’s 
Mycographia ; while young they were creamy-white, often tinged 
with pale purple, passing with age into pale ochre, and then to 
fulyous-brown ; stem short, thick, or sometimes absent The flesh 
was somewhat waxy, and exceedingly pre In section there was 
no sterile axis above the stem ileus consisting within of 
irregular cavities, divided and vabdivided by double oe oe 
were clothed with the hymenium. I found the asci to be cy 
drical, furnished with eight elliptic sporidia, 10-12 x 6-7 yp»; 
paraphyses slender, somewhat thickened at the apices. 7 odour 
and taste it very much resembles the mushroom (Agaricus cam- 
ret pee the flesh is very slow t o decay. 
wo young specimens slandives. if in the Plate 834 accom- 
suiivihe pete notes have been selected with the intention of 
showing that the structure of the pileus is that of Gyromitra; had 
a more advanced specimen been selected, it would not have enabled 
e reader to determine to which genus, Helvella or Gyromitra, it 
should be referred. 
In ae wine I venture to think that the many points 
me. 
sidered a sufficient justification for my regarding the two as 
identical. As regards the plant from Blackheath and from Coed 
Coch, there is so little light to guide us to a just conclusion, first, 
sad: mbholz, Naturgetreue Abbildungen und Beschreibungen der 
essbaren shbaitanon und "verdiichtigen Schwiimme, iii. 28, t. 20, figs. 1—5. 
Kk 2 
