158 The Irish Naturalist July, 
A MORElv NEW TO IREI.AND. 
BY D. M'ARDLE. 
In May last I received from the Hon. R. E. Dillon, D.I,., a 
single specimen of a Morchella which was found about a mile 
from the only British station where M. elata grows, on the 
Clonbrock estate,^ and where it has appeared this year, but 
more stunted in stature on account of spring frosts and cold 
winds. 
As I was acquainted with M. elata^ the specimen sent to me 
looked different from any Morel I had ever seen. The long 
Phallus-like stipe, small rotundo-conical pileus, free to about 
the middle, were remarkable ; probablj the true shape of the 
pileus is conical where a series of mature specimens is 
available. I thought it might be M. escultnta var. rotujida^ 
Pers., but the long stipe and the large smooth oval sporidia 
separated it from that form at once. 
So through the courteous Director at Kew I sent it to Mr. 
Massee, one of the best authorities on such matters, and he 
named it Mitrophora semilibera, I^ev.^ a native of Britain, 
France, Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, and Italy. Mr. 
Greenwood Pim, F.Iy S., states that he has not heard of its 
previous discovery in Ireland. 
The pileus when young is conic or sub-globose, yellowish 
olive, the reticulations formed by ribs running down with 
tolerable regularity from the apex, oblong with a few wrinkles 
within. The pileus when mature is inches high, nearly as 
bioad, darker, free for rather more than half its height, with 
reticulations oblong or rhomboidal ; the sporidia are 
large, oval, yellowish ; the stem is 5 inches or more high, i 
inch thick at the base, hollow, pitted and wrinkled below, 
1 /. Nat., vol. iii., p. 155. 
2 Ann. Set. Nat., 1846, v. 250. 
I append some of the names it is also known by. 
Morchella semilibera, De Caud., Fl. Fr. ii , p. 212. 
Cooke, Mycographia, vol. i., Plate 85, Fig. 321. 
Cooke, Handbook Brit. Fungi, vol. ii., p. 656. 
Helvella hybrida, Sowerby, Fungi, tab. 238. 
Morchella hybrida^ Pers., Saccardo, Sylloge Fungorum, vol. viii., p. 13. 
