the imperfect ones are rounded off midway; the spores are elliptic, and of the colour of brown-holland.[184] This mushroom is found occasionally, throughout the summer, but autumn is the season to look for it, amidst the grass of woods and pastures, where it abounds. It should be eaten the day it is gathered, either stewed, broiled, or fried with egg and bread-crumbs, like cutlets. When dried, it loses much of its volume and acquires “a very sweet smell,”—“un’ aroma suavissimo” (_Vitt._). HELVELLA CRISPA, _Fries_. HELVELLA LACUNOSA, _Afz._ Tribe MITRATI, _Fries_. “Può essere con vantaggio raccolta ed agli stessi usi delle spugniole destinata.”—_Vitt._ All _Helvellæ_ are esculent, have an agreeable odour, and bear a general resemblance in flavour to the _Morell_. The _Helvella crispa_, or pallid Helvella of Scopoli and Fries, is, it seems, “not uncommon,”[185] and the _Helvella lacunosa_, or cinereous Helvella of Afzel (on each of whose heads respectively Sowerby and Schœffer place an _inappropriate_ mitre), are both indigenous. They are thus succinctly but excellently described by Mr. Berkeley. _Helvella crispa_, Fries. _Bot. Char._ _Pileus_ whitish, flesh-coloured or yellowish, deflexed, lobed, free, crisped, pallid; _stem_ fistulose, costato-lacunose, 3-5 inches high, snowy-white, deeply lacunose and ribbed, the _ribs_ hollow. _Helvella lacunosa_, Afzel. _Bot. Char._ _Pileus_ inflated, lobed, cinereous,[186] lobes deflexed, adnate, stem fistulose, costato-lacunose; _stem_ white or dusky. This _Helvella_ is not so common as the last, neither is it so sapid. They both grow in woods and on the stumps of old trees. Bendiscioli places them, for flavour, before the _Morell_, but this is not the general opinion entertained of them. _Helvella esculenta_, Pers. PLATE XII. FIGS. 3, 4, AND 5. _Bot. Char._ _Pileus_ inflated, irregular, undulated, gyroso-rugose, of a rich dark-brown colour, margin united with the stem; _stem_ white or dusky. In plantations of fir and chestnut adjoining Weybridge Heath, in Surrey. It has not yet been found elsewhere in Britain. VERPA DIGITALIFORMIS, _Persoon_. PEZIZA ACETABULUM, _Linn._ Tribe CUPULATI. These funguses are very similar in their properties to the _Helvellæ_; that is, are not to be despised when one cannot get better, nor to be eaten when one can. “The _Verpa_,” says Vittadini, “though sold in the market, is only to be recommended when no other esculent fungus offers, which is sometimes the case in spring.” The _Peziza acetabulum_ is utterly insipid, and depends entirely for flavour upon the sauce in which it is served. As they are rare in England, I shall merely give the botanical character of each. _Verpa digitaliformis_, Persoon.