136 



BAS1DIOMYCE TES 



looked for especially on the Pacific Coast and in the Southwest. 

 In addition to the genera included in the synopsis, a species of 

 Phlyctospora has been described from Nebraska but little is known 

 either of the species or the genus to which it is said to belong. 



LITERATURE. 



Saccardo. Sylloge Fungorum, 7 : 154-180, 491, 492 ; g : 280, 

 281 ; ii : 168-173. 



Hesse. Die Hypogaeen Deutschlands. 2 vols., 4to. PL 1-22. 

 Halle, 1891-1894. 



Tulasne. Fungi Hypogaei. Folio. PL 1-21. Paris, 1851. 



Order 10. LYCOPERDALES. 



The ordinary puff-balls form the family Lycoperdaceae* which 

 makes up the present order. In various parts of the country they 

 take the names of smoke-balls or devils' snuff-boxes. The dust of 

 Bovista pila is sometimes used in the country for stanching the 

 flow of blood. In their early stages most of the larger species and 

 some of the smaller are used for food. Calvatia Bovista, the 

 giant puff-ball, sometimes reaches an enormous size varying from 

 the size of a man's head to that of a half bushel basket, the latter 

 size only rarely reached. Such species develop only where there are 

 buried decaying roots whose substance is widely permeated by the 

 mycelium. As in the preceding order the hyphae are often com- 

 bined into mycelial strands and often form an extensive net-work, 

 especially in those species which grow in clusters along the bases 

 of very rotten stumps or on logs that have almost fallen to 

 pieces with decay. The young puff-balls appear first as minute 

 balls, and gradually enlarge until the normal size for the species 

 is attained when the fleshy interior which until now appeared 

 white and cheesy, takes on a yellowish or pinkish color and 

 gradually darkens until either the whole mass, or all except a more 

 or less enlarged basal portion, becomes filled with dust-like spores. 

 The spores are usually either yellowish olive-brown or purplish 



* It is more than likely that when the comparative morphology of this 

 order has been carefully studied, it will be found to contain several family 

 types among its diverse and peculiar forms. Such a division should rest 

 on a more careful comparative research than this group has yet received. 



