Specimens examined: Cooke's type at Kew (only a slide); a specimen collected by Colenso from New Zealand, at Kew (labelled as Helvella monachella).

Fruitbodies 4-6 cm high. Pileus 2-3 cm in diameter, irregularly hemispherical, undulate, with brown hymenium, free margins and whitish underside. Stipe stout, cylindrical, 2-3 x 0.3-1 cm, smooth. whitish. Asci subcylindrical, 200-250 x 11-14 µ. Spores uniseriate, ellipsoid or elongated ellipsoid, smooth, hyaline, with two small oil drops at each end. 21-26 x (9.7)-10-13 µ. Paraphyses cylindrical, clavately enlarged and dark brown at apices.

Distribution: Tasmania, New Zealand.

There is also a good species of Gyromitra from the southern hemisphere. Examining collections of Helvella, loaned from the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, my attention was called by a specimen labelled Helvella monachella from New Zealand. Macroscopically it already had the appearance of a Gyromitra. which was proved by microscopical analysis. In search for a name for this fungus, I made my decision in favour of Gyromitra tasmanica Cooke.
It is a good species of Gyromitra from the southern hemisphere, close to G. esculenta, but differing in poorly developed pileus with entirely free margins and in larger and more elongated spores. The specimen from New Zealand agrees well with Cooke's figure in external characters, and there are no differences in spores of this collection and type. either. It must be noted that the spores of this species are figured in Mycographia incorrectly. They are typically ellipsoid or elongated ellipsoid, but never fusoid (fig. 1). Dr. Dennis described them as ellipticfusoid (Dennis in Lit.). but there seems to be a difference in the Terminology.