l8o BRITISH EDIBLE FUNGI. 



such locally, and with little authority, are of very 

 different structure, however similar they may be in 

 appearance. But it requires a strong imagination to 

 assimilate the appearances. The typical form of the 

 species of Peziza is that of a cup, so that these are 

 sometimes called " Earth Cups " if they are in the 

 habit of growing on the ground. It is the inner sur- 

 face of these cups which is fertile and bears the 

 spores, enclosed in long, delicate cylindrical tubes or 

 sacs, termed asci, each of which contains normally 

 eight spores. It is essential to point out this differ- 

 ence in structure, which is more like that of the 

 morels, than that of either the agarics or even the 

 veritable Jew's ears. 



The most promising of these cups, from a gastro- 

 nomic point of view, is the "' veined cup " {Peziza 

 venosd) which has a strong and rather nitrous odour 

 as it grows old, or begins to dry ; the cups themselves 

 are about two inches in diameter, whitish and mealy 

 on the outside and veined or puckered at the base, 

 the inner surface is of a dark, rather purplish brown. 

 When mature they expand and flatten out a little, 

 but split from the edge downwards in doing so, and 

 then the under surface is but little seen. The thick- 

 ness of the cup is not greater than the length of one 

 of these printing letters, so that an entire cup is not 

 more than a mouthful, and as the species is not par- 

 ticularly common, it has not much merit as a food 

 product. The disadvantage in nearly all the species 



