MORCHELLA.

2-3 inches long, but the substance is much thinner than the others; longitudinal ribs, very elevated, membranous, flaccid, very rarely anastomosing joining together like a network, but joined by narrower transverse ribs, from which arise rhomboid-deformed areolae small spaces or cells, smooth on the inside. Color yellowish-brown. Taste watery and insipid; it swells in rainy weather, and in dry weather it contracts and shrivels, turns black, and gives off such a strong odor that it cannot be eaten. Found in fir forests, especially in damp, burnt-over places, but rare. In spring. (seen alive)

Boletus esculentus &c. no. 5. Mich. gen. p. 203. t. 85. f. 3. regarding the illustration, it corresponds most exactly to our fungus. I fear, however, that he may have understood another edible species with firm ribs etc. From this figure of Micheli arose Phallus Anastomosis Batsch., Phallus costatus Ventenat l. c. p. 510. Morch. costata Pers. syn. p. 620. It grows in the fields of Italy. — M. costata Schmidt & Kunz. exs. no. 195 certainly differs from both; according to my incomplete specimen, it seems to represent the brown variety of M. deliciosa.

4. M. hiemalis, with globular pileus attached at the base, deeply cellular with anastomosing wrinkles, with a slightly striated stipe.

Ph. hiemalis. Balb. Misc. p. 60. t. 11. f. 4.

Stature of the first species, but its stipe is never striated. Discovered on a certain wall facing north near Padua. In January. (seen in illustration)

5. M. crassipes, with conical, cellular, acuminate pointed pileus, with a stipe inflated at the base.

Phallus crassipes. Ventenat l. c. p. 509. f. 2. Morch. Pers. syn. p. 621. Dec. Fr. 2, p. 213.

Pileus short, brown. Stipe, tapering upward, is four times longer than the pileus. A species not yet properly known, but it seems to belong to this section and differs from the others by the singular form of the stipe. In France at Pontchartrain. (seen in illustration)