218 



Mycologia 



No collections of this species have been reported from Massa- 

 chusette and we can add nothing to the above description. The 

 length and furrowing of the stipe seem to us to be hardly suffi- 

 cient basis for calling this plant a Helvella, since neither of these 

 characters is lacking in the Pezizales where the cup-like upright 

 pileus would seem to place the species in the genus Acetabula. 



6. Helvella ephippium Lev. Ann. Sci. Nat. II. 16: 240. pi. 15, 



fig. 7. 1841 



Leveille's original description. Gregaria, villosa, cinerea ; 

 pileo 2-3-lobo, deflexo, libero; stipite cylindrico, laevi, farcto. 1 



Hab. circa Parisios, ad terrain in graminosis. Aestate. 



Pileus firm, smooth, rather tough and membranaceous, at first 

 pezizoid, then becoming saddle-shaped by the elevation of two 

 opposite sides and the depression of the intervening margins, 

 1-3 cm. broad, margin always free from the stipe, smoke brown 

 or bistre above, cinereous and scurfy villose below with tufts of 

 converging, closely septate, moniliform, brown hairs increasing 

 to 12-15/x in thickness at their apices. Stipe slender, attenuate 

 upward, scurfy-villose like the lower surface of pileus, stuffed, 

 terete, tough, elastic, cinereous, 1-3.3 cm - high by 2-5 mm. diam. 

 at the base. Asci 200-300 X 14-18/x. Spores hyaline, smooth, 

 ellipsoidal, with large central oil drop, 14-18 X 10-12/*. Para- 

 physes slender, septate, enlarged upward, brown-tinted. (PI. 12, 

 figs. 18-20.) 



Gregarious, on the ground in grassy places and thin woods. 

 Common in late summer and autumn. 



Our specimens have been very dark gray, some of them fus- 

 cous-black. The pezizoid character is very prominent and 

 although the older ones are frequently saddle-shaped, they be- 

 come so in the manner described above and not because the 

 lobes are reflexed from the first as in H. atra. We find with 

 Leveille however that the shape is not very constant. Many of 

 the stipes were partly buried and in all cases a round ball of 

 earth adheres to the base of the stipe, making it appear at first 

 bulbose. The hairs on the lower surface are longer and the 

 scurfy-villose character more prominent than in H. atra,, giving 

 the plant an almost shaggy appearance. The spores are described 



1 A long note follows this brief diagnosis in the original. 



