Pezizæ, a sort of mushroom without root or stalk, mentioned by Pliny.
Ascophore sessile, but sometimes narrowed to a short, stem-like base, fleshy and brittle, closed at first, then expanding until cup-shaped, saucer-shaped, or in some species quite plane or even convex; disk even, nodulose or veined; externally warted, scurfy, or rarely almost glabrous; cortical cells irregularly polygonal; asci cylindrical, 8-spored. Spores obliquely 1-seriate, continuous, hyaline (rarely tinged brown), elliptical, epispore smooth or rough; paraphyses present. Dill. Emended. Massee.
The genus is large. Professor Peck reports 150 American species. Some are large, others require the microscope to find them.
They are rather indiscriminate in their habitats; some are eccentric; these grow on damp walls, on dung, in cellars and cisterns, on spent hops and on old fungi. One or two species grow on sticks under water, an unusual place for fungi of any kind. Minute species grow upon stems of herbaceous plants; nine or ten upon the nettle. Two species contain a milky fluid, P. succosa and P. saniosa. Many are known in Europe which have not been found in America. European authors differ as to their qualities; some call them insipid, some speak of them with kindly respect. Much depends upon their cooking. They are, as a rule, tenacious in texture. To cook them properly requires time and slow stewing. They then become soft and rather glutinous. Their flavor is slight but pleasant, and their consistency agreeable.
ANALYSIS OF TRIBES.
I.—Aleuria. Page [553]
Externally powdered or with a woolly scurf.
II.—Lachnea. Page [558].
Externally hairy or downy.
III.—Phialea.