I. MORCHELLA. Dill.

Boletus & Phallo-Boletus. Mich. gen. p. 202, 203.
Phallus species. Linn. Gled. meth. p. 54. Ventenat in Mem. Inst. Nat. I. p. 503. Morchella, Dill. Gen. p. 74. Pers. disp. p. 36. Link. diss. I. p. 41. Nees Syst. p. 176.

CHAR. Receptacle clavate club-shaped or pileate, rounded; impervious in the center, supported; covered above by the hymenium. Hymenium cellular or lacunose with elevated ribs, persistent. Asci fixed. — Stipe constantly present, somewhat hollow. Pileus more or less elongated and confluent with the stipe. Substance wax-like and fleshy.

OBS. Larger, vernal spring-growing, terrestrial fungi, firm, long-persistent, with little odor, edible; so related that the blessed Scopoli, joining many, adds: "It varies in the pileus, being round and pointed, yellowish and brown, with longitudinal pilei or otherwise disposed; but odor, taste, life, substance, use, birthplace, and the time of birth, the same for all, teach that it is a single species." Fl. Carn. II. p. 474.

HISTOR. Morchellae have been well known since the times of Clusius and celebrated by many authors. However, they seem to regard only the varieties of the first species; only Micheli defined several species more accurately under two genera. Dillenius again well combined these genera and formed the accepted generic name from the German word Morchel Morel. Linné and Gleditsch, following Tournefort, joined them with the Phalli. The celebrated Afzelius, who in mycological matters was much ahead of his time and pointed out many new genera already established, inserting them into Helvella (Obs. Bot. I. p. 5.), was the first after Linné to claim that the Morchellae were a type of their own genus. In the knowledge of the species, if you set aside the monograph of the celebrated Ventenat, we have hardly advanced since the times of Micheli; for his species have not been confirmed, nor has the cited testimony of Scopoli been refuted. In the regions where they emerge more abundantly, it has not happened to me to be there in the spring, which is why I could only add a little and entrust the entire genus to further examination. Concerning the economic use of Morchellae, see Trattin., Pers. Ch. Com. p. 258.