THE MORELL. 
94 
rising, became finally detached from the wrapper in 
every part excepting at the points of the clefts, where 
it remained fixed ; in the same manner as a man might 
be supposed able to pull up the skin from the hollow 
of the hand, and let it remain attached at the tips of 
the fingers. This puff dries remarkably well, and 
even shows the general form more distinctly than when 
recent. 
The starry puff (lycoperdon stellatum) is rather diffi- 
cult to find, but is a much more common plant, delight- 
ing to grow amidst the herbage of some dry bank, and 
so is hidden from common observation ; but the winds 
of autumn detach it from the banks, and it remains 
driving about the pastures, little altered until spring, 
when it decays. 
We have the morell (morchella esculenta),* but to 
this I must subjoin “ rarissime.” Bolton and Micheli 
represent the pileus as cellular, like a honeycomb. All 
that I have seen are mesenterically puckered. In what 
part of this morell the seeds reside is obscure : not in 
the hollows of the pileus, I think. That part of our 
morell, which in an agaric would be flesh, is found by 
the microscope to consist of fine woolly fibres united in 
a mass : and probably the seed is contained in this part; 
for when the plant is mature, and begins to dry, the 
outer coating cracks, and tears these filaments asunder, 
and gives the seminal matter, if contained in this part, 
a free passage for escape. 
The bell-shaped nidularia (nidularia campanulata) is 
common with us, the smooth (nidularia laevis) is much 
less so. I do not mention them on account of their 
rarity, but to notice the singular size of the seeds of 
this genus. The principle, by which nearly the whole 
of the fungi are continued, is in most instances obscure. 
A dust, considered as seminal, is observable in some 
of the genera ; in others, even this is imperceptible ; 
but in the nidularia the actual seeds, for they are not 
* This is the phallus esculentus of some; but Jussieu, Persoon, 
and others, have removed it from that genus, on account of its having 
no volva, but seeds in cells, not contained in a glareous mucus. 
