Bot. Char. Receptacle hollow and confluent with stalk, club-shaped, or, like the pileus, fissured above with lacunæ more or less deep, limited by thick folds, anastomosed with reticulations, entirely covered with sporiferous membrane; flesh waxy in texture; stalk constant.
There are two esculent kinds, M. esculenta and semilibera; the esculenta and hybrida of Sowerby.
Genus 23. HELVELLA.
Bot. Char. Substance fleshy; margins sinuous; only the upper portion of the pileus sporiferous.
Esculent species: H. crispa, lacunosa, and esculenta.
[In Genera 24 to 26 there are no esculent species.]
Tribe 4. CUPULATI.
Hymenium concrete, superior, smooth, shut in while young by the margins of the receptacle; sporules disseminated with elasticity or otherwise; receptacle bowl-shaped, flat or concave; some of this tribe when young have an involucrum.