Dirty white, quite pallid, gelatinous, punctiform, slightly undulated; consisting of erect simple threads; frequently there is a slight tinge of yellow. The spores are very minute. It looked very much like an undeveloped Peziza when I found it, in fact I thought it P. vulgaris until I had submitted a specimen to Prof. Atkinson.

CHAPTER XII.
ASCOMYCETES—SPORE-SAC FUNGI.

Ascomycetes is from two Greek words: ascos, a sack; mycetes, a fungus or mushroom. All the fungi which belong to this class develop their spores in small membranous sacs. These asci are crowded together side by side, and with them are slender empty asci called paraphyses. The spores are inclosed in these sacs, usually eight in a sac. They are called sporidia to separate them from the Basidiomycetes. These sacs arise from a naked or inclosed stratum of fructifying cells, forming a hymenium or nucleus.

Family—Helvellaceae.

Hymenium at length more or less exposed, the substance soft. The genera are distinguished from the earth-tongues by the cup-like forms of the spore body, but especially by the character of the spore sacs which open by a small lid, instead of spores. The following are some of the genera:

Morchella. Dill.

Morchella is from a Greek word meaning a mushroom. This genus is easily recognized. It may be known by the deeply pitted, and often elongated, naked head, the depressions being usually regular but sometimes resembling mere furrows with wrinkled interspaces. The cap or head varies in form from rounded to ovate or cone shape. They are all marked by deep pits, covering the entire surface, separated by ridges forming a net-work. The spore-sacs are developed in both ridges and depressions. All the species when young are of a buff-yellow tinged with brown. The stems are stout and hollow, white, or whitish in color.

The common name is Morel, and they appear during wet weather early in the spring.