Anderson & Ickis: Massachusetts Species of Helvella 213 



Solitary or gregarious, on the ground, or frequently on wet, 

 rotten logs and stumps in the woods. Not uncommon in autumn. 



This species varies greatly in size, shape, and color with the 

 locality and conditions of development. Such variations have 

 resulted in the establishment of a number of species and vari- 

 eties, as indicated by the synonyms listed above, but the lack of 

 good constant specific characters and the occurrence of inter- 

 grading specimens indicate that they might better be considered 

 merely as variable forms of this rather broad species. The 

 writers have followed Rehm (1896), Massee (1895), and others 

 in uniting H. sulcata Afz. with this species. Fries considers 

 them as separate species and places in H. sulcata the forms with 

 stuffed stipes and solid costae which do not anastomose, while 

 in H. lacunosa he places those with hollow stipes and hollow 

 costae which sometimes anastomose. Later writers have also 

 found that the latter is the larger species, e.g., Boudier (1905) 

 gives the height of H. lacunosa as 5-12 cm. and that of H. 

 sulcata as 3-7 cm., also adding that the stipe of H. sulcata is 

 not ventricose at the base and the spores are a little smaller. 

 Specimens collected about Amherst have rarely been over 5-6 

 cm. in height, the costae are solid and the stipes not hollow. They 

 agree, therefore, more nearly with the descriptions of H. sulcata. 

 But in the anastomosing of the costae they resemble H. lacunosa 

 Fr. In view of the pronounced tendency to variation in stature 

 which is exhibited by various species of Helvella, size, unless 

 very extreme, would hardly seem to be a safe specific character. 

 As for the distinction based on the solid or hollow condition 

 of the costae, we have previously noted that both conditions 

 seem to exist in H. crispa but no writer has attempted to split 

 the latter into two species on this basis. In our specimens in- 

 terior tubes have been found only where the furrows on the 

 surface have been converted into tubes by the anastomosing of 

 the outer edges of the costae. 



Our specimens have uniformly had smoke-gray stipes and 

 smoke-gray to fuscous pilei, which become darker as they be- 

 come older or dry out. Fries lists under H. lacunosa a form 

 major with white stipe and form minor with blackish stipe. Also 



