6o 
Rhodora 
[April 
of the Helvelleae. The species of Xylaria are more woody when 
mature, however, and sectional views of their fructifications show the 
hymenium, lining small sunken pits, the perithecia, each of which opens 
to the exterior by only a very minute aperture. 
The twenty-one species of Helvelleae so far found in Vermont 1 
belong in the eight genera : Morchella, Gyromitra, Helvella, Geoglos- 
sum, Spathularia, Vibrissea, Mitrula, and Leotia. For the convenience 
of those who are working toward a better knowledge of our Vermont and 
New England species and their distribution, a key to these genera is given 
and also brief descriptive notes on each species. For the same reason, 
notes are also included on a few additional species not yet found in Ver¬ 
mont. In the treatment of the subfamily Geoglosseae, I have followed 
Massee’s Monograph of the Geoglosseae, 2 which seems to have been very 
carefully prepared and gives, on the whole, the most satisfactory presen¬ 
tation of the genera and species yet published. 
Key to the Genera. 
I. Ascigerous portion pileate or mitriform; fructification fleshy, 
rarely less than 3 cm. high, usually 5 cm. or more and often weighing 
several ounces ..... Subfamily Morchelleae 
1. Ascigerous portion ovoid or conical, with its outer surface deeply pitted by inter¬ 
secting systems of ridges ....... Morchella 
2. Ascigerous portion bullate-inflated, gyrose-convolute and somewhat rounded in 
our single species ......... Gyromitra 
3. Ascigerous portion reflexed, mitriform-lobate or saddle-shaped, even. One 
doubtful member of this genus has the ascigerous portion cup-shaped at first, 
becoming plane .......... Helvella 
II. Ascigerous portion clavate, spathulate, or capitate; fructifica¬ 
tions fleshy or gelatinous, mostly slender, erect, small, and usually less 
than 5 cm. high; asci opening at the apex by a mere pore for libera¬ 
tion of the spores ..... Subfamily Geoglosseae 
1 Of the Helvelleae, in Frost’slist in the Amherst Catalogue of Plants growing with¬ 
in thirty miles of Amherst, Mass., five of the seventeen species there listed are not repre¬ 
sented in the present list. These five species are Helvella lacunosa Afz., II. Ephip- 
pium Lev., Vibrissea truncorum Fr., Mitrula cucullata Fr., and Rhizina undulata 
hr. As the authorities of Brattleboro’, who have control of the Frost Herbarium, have 
not yet arranged it so that botanists are permitted to consult it, I greatly regret my 
inability to include in our Vermont list collections of the above five and any other 
species of Helvelleae which Frost may have made in Vermont in the vicinity of 
Brattleboro’. 
2 Annals of Botany 11 : 225-306, pis. 12 and 13. 1897. 
