Gastromycetes 



Calvatia. capillitium rather dense, subpersistent, and with the spores dingy-olive 

 or dingy-brown, sometimes verging toward purplish-brown. Spores 

 rough, 4 5/u, in diameter. Edible. 



Low mossy grounds and bushy swamps, especially under alders. 

 Sandlake, Center and Adirondack mountains. August to October. 

 Peck, 32d Rep. N. Y. State Bot. 



West Virginia, 18811885; Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina. 

 Frequent, thin moist woods. July to November. Mcllvaine. 



C. saccata, the long-stemmed puff-ball, is a common and pleasing 

 species. Shape, color, feel, combine to make it attractive. It is one 

 of the very best we have. When white inside and otherwise in good 

 condition it is delicious. 



C. ela'ta Massee. 



(Plate CLXIV.) 



Peridium globose or depressed-globose above, 

 plicate below and abruptly contracted into a long 

 stem-like base; the base slender, cylindric or 

 tapering downward, sometimes pitted ; mycelium 

 fibrous and filamentous. Cortex a very thin 

 coat of minute persistent spinules or granules ; 

 inner peridium white or cream-colored, becom- 

 ing brown or olivaceous, very thin and fragile, 

 after maturity the upper part soon breaking up 

 into fragments and falling away. Subgleba oc- 

 cupying the stem-like base, a long time persist- 

 ent; mass of spores and capillitium brown or 

 brownish -olivaceous; the threads very long, 

 branched, the main stem as thick as the spores, 

 the branches more slender. Spores globose, 

 even or very minutely wartetl, 4~5/* in diame- 

 ter with a short or minute pedicel. 



Growing among mosses in low grounds and 

 bushy places. New England, Humphrey; New 



York, Peck. Peridium 1-2 in. in diameter and 3-6 in. in height, the 

 stem-like base %-% of an inch in thickness. This American form of 

 Lycoperdon saccatum has lately been separated from it, and named, 

 figured and described as Lycoperdon elatum by George Massee. 

 Morgan. 

 Edible. 



588 



CALVATIA ELATA. 

 (After Morgan.) 



