The peculiar texture of these mushrooms permits of their ready desiccation, and in Britain and on the Continent they are commonly strung on strings and dried for future use, in which condition they have been compared to dried "wash-leather" in texture. The famous aristocratic Morel (_Morchella esculenta_), already described, so prized as food in Europe, and to which the Helvella is closely allied, has a similar irregular, pitted, hollowed, and netted surface over its entire conical or globular gray cap, and the same texture. Most competent judges claim that the delicious Morel possesses no advantages over the more plebeian Helvella as a delicacy for the table. The flavor is identical, and the other qualities of the two mushrooms make them equally desirable.
The readiness with which they may be dried, and thus kept indefinitely, is another distinct advantage which the Morels and Helvellas possess over the ordinary gilled Agarics, many of which must be gathered in their young prime and immediately eaten.
There are numerous ways of serving these fungi, among which is the common method of frying with butter or oil, and variously seasoning with onion, garlic, herbs, etc., according to taste, and serving on toast, or with crisped bread-crumbs. Our chapter on recipes will suggest other more elaborate methods.
=Pileus:= Two to three inches in diameter; wavy or curled, reflexed at edges, often puckered towards centre; white or pale creamy; somewhat leathery in texture in older specimens.
=Spore surface:= On underside of cap, ochraceous.
=Stem:= White, more or less furrowed with vertical hollows.
=Taste:= Similar to Morel, to which it is closely allied.
[Illustration: SECTION OF PUFF-BALL--EARLIER AND LATER STAGES]
A detailed discrimination of the Puff-balls is hardly necessary here, and I will therefore omit it. While I am not inclined to go so far as to contend, as was the quaint habit of old Dr. Culpeper, in his _Herbal_, in which he was wont similarly to elude description of an herb, affirming that "he were a fool indeed who does not know this plant"--or words of similar import--it is perfectly safe to say that if there is one fungus more than another with which the populace is _specifically_ familiar it is the Puff-ball.