Anderson & Ickis: Massachusetts Species of Helvella 211 



diam. Asci cylindrical, 250-300 X 15-18/x. Spores ellipsoidal, 

 smooth, hyaline, with large central oil drop, 16-19 X 9-12^. 

 Paraphyses straight, slender, enlarging upward, hyaline, slightly 

 longer than the asci. (PL 11, fig. J.) 



Plants usually solitary, in dense wet woods, especially along 

 streams, on the ground, leaf-mold, or sometimes decayed logs 

 or stumps. Common in autumn. 



The pilei of all the specimens which the writers have collected 

 about Amherst are cream-color, light-buff, or warm-buff. Plants 

 exhibiting shades of pink or red are said to be common in 

 Europe. On the basis of color Fries (1. c.) enumerates three 

 forms; (a) alba, pallescens, (b) incarnata, (c) lutescens. Sim- 

 ilarly Massee (1895) gives: 



"Forma alba. Pileus whitish.. 

 Forma Grevillei. Under surface of pileus reddish ; stem white. 

 Forma incarnata. Pileus and stem flesh color. 

 Forma fulva. Pileus yellowish to tawny." 



In the exsiccati the stipes become light-buff or warm-buff but the 

 hymenial surface becomes much darker, cinnamon, bay, ochra- 

 ceous-tawny or ochraceous-buff in specimens we have compared 

 with Ridgway's Color Standards. 



The size of the plants is an extremely variable character ; a 

 condition which is true of all the species of Helvella which we 

 have studied. Our specimens have usually been small, rarely 

 exceeding 4-5 cm. in height, and we have frequently found 

 diminutive forms less than 1.5 cm. high. Hone (1904) describes 

 the Minnesota specimens as up to 10 cm. in height and the stipe 

 up to 5 cm. in diameter. In the Harvard herbarium there are 

 specimens which measure up to 8 cm. tall ; in the fresh condition 

 they must have been fully as large as those from Minnesota. 

 Most of the specimens which one finds have the pileus entirely 

 free on the margin. We do not find the costae hollow in our 

 small specimens as described by Fries and others. 



Massachusetts Collections: Boston 1858 (Sprague) ; Wal- 

 tham, Oct. 1901 (Morris) ; Roslindale, Oct.. 1901 (W. R. Hud- 

 son), Bost. Myc. Herb.; Williamstown, Sept. 1901 (Farlow), in 

 Harv. Herb.; Amherst, Sept. and Oct. 1919 and 1920 (Ickis & 

 Anderson) M. A. C. Herb. 2643, 2 7 I 5» 2 7Z 2 , 2822. Frost's col- 



