Morchella semilibera.
M. semilib´era D.C.—half-free. The Half-free morell has a conical cap, the lower half of which is free from the stem. It rarely exceeds 1 in. or 1½ in. in length, and is usually much shorter than its stem. The pits on its surface are longer than broad. Deformed specimens occur in which the cap is hemispherical and very blunt or obtuse at the apex; in others it is abruptly narrowed above and pointed.
The plants are 2–4 in. high. The species is rare with us. Peck, 48th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Spores pale-yellow.
Odor feeble, becomes stronger in drying. Much less sapid than M. esculenta. Neither of these funguses should be gathered after rain, as they are then insipid and soon spoil. Badham.
GYROMI´TRA Fr.
Gyro, to turn; mitra, a head-covering.
Ascophore stipitate; hymenophore subglobose, inflated and more or less hollow, or cavernous, variously gyrose and convolute at the surface, which is everywhere covered with the hymenium; substance fleshy; asci cylindrical, 8-spored. Spores uniseriate, elongated, hyaline or nearly so, continuous; paraphyses present.
Helvella of old authors.
Distinguished from Morchella by the thick, brain-like folds of the hymenophore not anastomosing to form irregularly polygonal depressions; and from Helvella in the hymenophore not being free from the stem at the base.