256 EDIBLE MUSHROOMS 



gested in Plate 31, fig. i, is the C. botrytis. It has a 

 thick, fleshy trunk and swollen branches. Its sub- 

 stance is very brittle; color creamy-yellow, with red- 

 tipped branchlets. It is found in woods. 



THE MOREL 



Morchella esculenta 



In decided contrast to any of the foregoing fungi, 

 and of unmistakable aspect, is the famous Morel, 

 Morchella esculenta (Plate 32). 



The Morel belongs to a cohort of fungi known 



as the Sporidiifera, in which the spores are enclosed 



in bag-like envelopes, in distinction to the Sporifera, 



in which the spores are naked and ex- 



Botanical posed, as shown in Plates 35 and 36. 



characters These cysts, or bags, or asci, which re- 

 semble the cystidium in Plate 35, and 

 in the family of Ascomycetes, to which the Morel 

 belongs, each contains about eight spores, which are 

 finally liberated by the bursting of the tip of the 

 bag, after the manner of a Puff-ball. 



In the Morel the hymenium or spore-bearing sur- 

 face is crowded with these cysts, and covers the 

 entire exposed conical and pitted surface of the 

 mushroom. 



Description is hardly necessary with its portrait 

 before us. No other fungus at all resembles it ex- 

 cept those of the same genus, and inasmuch as they 

 are all edible, we may safely add to our bill of fare 

 any fungus which resembles our illustration. The 

 Morel has long been considered as one of the rarest 

 of delicacies, always at a fancy premium in the 



