These plants are found on pine and fir trunks and on sawdust heaps. They grow in groups and are very variable in form and size but easily determined, being the only tremelloid fungus with true spines. The plants in Figure 405 were photographed by Prof. G. D. Smith of Akron, Ohio. They are edible. Found from September to cold weather.

_Exidia. Fr._

Gelatinous, marginal, fertile above, barren below. Exidia may be known by its minute nipple-like elevations.

_Exidia grandulosa. Fr._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Plate L. Figure 404.--Excidia glandulosa.]

This plant is called "Witches' b.u.t.ter." It varies in color, from whitish to brown and deep cinereous, at length blackish; flattened, undulated, much wrinkled above, slightly plicated below; soft at first and when moist, becoming film-like when dry. Found on dead branches of oak.

_Hirneola. Fr._

Hirneola is the diminutive of _hirnea_, a jug. Gelatinous, cup-shaped, h.o.r.n.y when dry. Hymenium wrinkled, becoming cartilaginous when moistened. The hymenium is in the form of a hard skin which covers the cup-shaped cavities, and which can be peeled off after soaking in water, the interstices are without papillae and the outer surface is velvety.

_Hirneola auricula-Judae. Berk._

THE JEW'S EAR HIRNEOLA. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 406.--Hirneola auricula-Judae.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Plate LI. Figure 407.--Hirneola auricula-judae.]

Auricula-Judae, the ear of the Jew. The plant is gelatinous; one to four inches across; thin, concave, wavy, flexible when moist, hard when dry; blackish, fuzzy, hairy beneath; when covered with white spores it is cinereous. The hymenium by its corrugations forms depressions such as are found in the human ear. One will not fail to recognize it after seeing it once. It is not common in our woods, yet I have found it on several occasions. It is found on almost any timber but most frequently on the elm and elder. The plant in Figure 406 was found near Chillicothe. Its distribution is general.

_Guepinia. Fr._

Gelatinous, inclining to cartilaginous, free, different on the two sides, variable in form, substipitate. Hymenium confined to one side.

_Guepinia spathularia._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Figure 408.--Guepinia spathularia. Entire plant a light yellow.]

Yellow, cartilaginous, especially when dry, spathulate, expanded above, hymenium slightly ribbed, contracted where it issues from a log.

It is quite common on beech and maple logs. I have seen beech logs, somewhat decayed, quite yellow with this interesting plant.

_Hymenula. Fr._

Effused, very thin, maculaeform, agglutinate, between wavy or gelatinous.

_Berk._

_Hymenula punctiformis. B. & Br._

POINT-LIKE HYMENULA.

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 cla.s.s 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:

Morch.e.l.la Pileus deeply folded and pitted.

Gyromitra Pileus covered with rounded and variously contorted folds.

Helvella Pileus drooping, irregularly waved and lobed.

_Morch.e.l.la. Dill._

Morch.e.l.la 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 inters.p.a.ces. 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.

_Morch.e.l.la esculenta. Pers._

THE COMMON MOREL. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 409.--Morch.e.l.la esculenta. Two-thirds natural size.]

The Common Morel has a cap a little longer than broad, so that it is almost oval in outline. Sometimes it is nearly round but again it is often slightly narrowed in its upper half, though not pointed or cone-like. The pits in its surface are more nearly round than in the other species. In this species the pits are irregularly arranged so that they do not form rows, as will be observed in Figure 409.