64 DECADES OF FUNGI. 
Exterior peridium rigid, multipartite, lined with a dark- 
brown smooth coat. Divisions:about 8, mostly equal acute. 
Interior peridium perfectly sessile, very minutely scabrous, 
pale; disc plane, aperture conical, plicate. Capillitium and — 
spores brown. | 
This species differs from G. wmbilicatus in its rigid outer 
peridium, larger spores, and the disc of the aperture not 
being so decidedly umbilicate. It is more nearly allied to 
G. ambiguus, Mont.; but in that the outer peridium is not 
equally divided, and the lining of it thicker and pale. It 
agrees with it in the size of the spores. The peridium of G. . 
ambiguus, in the only specimen which I possess, is very - 
scabrous. I have no doubt, from a series of specimens 
which I have seen in Dr. Montague’s herbarium, of the dis- 
tinctness of the two species, though it is difficult to indicate 
the exact differences. It is a small species, scarcely exceed- 
ing an inch in diameter when expanded. 
Tab I. f. 4. Geaster Drummondii; nat size. 
*G. rufescens, P.—Drumm. n. 174. 
At once distinguished from G. hygrometricus by its smooth ; 
minute spores. 
59. Bovista lilacina, Mont. and Berk.; turbinata subtus | 
plicata primum pallide ochracea demum sublilacina ; capillitio 
sporisque lilacinis.—Drumm. n. 167. ; 
On the ground. 
Turbinate 23 inches in diameter, plicate below, smooth; 
at first cream-coloured, but gradually acquiring a pale lilac 
tinge; outer coat very thin ; inner at first firm; apex at 
length expanding and lobed, exposing the elliptic lilac capilli- 
tium and minute, globose, smooth spores, which at length 
vanish, and leave a Pezizæform base. The cells are not per- 
sistent in this species as in the genus Hippoperdon. In an 
early stage of growth a section of this species resembles very 
much Lycoperdon cælatum. The stem is hollowed out into 
little sinuous cavities, but those which are destined to be 
fertile form a distinct elliptic mass. In some specimens the 
stem is very decided, in others almost obsolete. 
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