Gastromycetes 



Catastoma. North America Fungi. It grows in great abundance with us some sea- 

 sons, right in the hard-trodden barn-yard, and along the lane to the cat- 

 tle pasture. Arachnion album Schw. usually keeps it company. Mor- 

 gan. 



I have not seen this acrobatic species. Study of its unique habit sug- 

 gests the query : Is not the turning over of its spore-filled portion a 

 substitute for an original but lost power of growing right side up? 



GENUS XII. BOVIS'TA Dill. 



Bovista. Mycelium fibrous or sometimes filamentous. Peridium subglobose, 



without a thickened base ; cortex a thin 



(Plate CLXXIX.) fragile continuous layer, shelling off or dis- 



appearing at maturity, except sometimes a 

 small portion about the base ; inner perid- 

 ium thin, membranaceous, becoming papy- 

 raceous, dehiscent by an apical mouth or 

 opening irregularly. Capillitium originat- 

 ing within the tissue of the gleba ; the 



mously branched, the main stem much 

 thicker than the diameter of the spores, the branches tapering. Spores 

 small, globose, or oval, even, brown. Morgan. 



Small puff-balls growing upon the ground in fields and woods. One 

 grows underground. 



B. pi'la B.and C. a ball. Peridium globose or obovoid, with a 

 stout, cord-like root. Cortex a thin, white, smooth, continuous coat, 

 breaking up at maturity into minute scales, which soon disappear; inner 

 peridium thickish, tough, rigid, becoming brown or purplish-brown, 

 smooth and shining, a long time persistent, and finally with age often 

 fading to silvery-gray ; dehiscence taking place at length by an irregular, 

 torn aperture at or about the apex. Mass of spores and capillitium 

 very firm, compact and persistent, at first clay-colored, pale brown or 

 olivaceous, at length dark or purplish-brown; the threads rather small, 

 .6-. 8 mm. in extent, three to five times branched, 12-15/1 thick, the 

 ultimate branches rigid, nearly straight, tapering to a fine point. Spores 



610 



