Dbc. 1, I860.] 



HABDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



27] 



It is not very common to find a puff-ball which 

 attains six inches in height, of which the lower 

 portion forms a stem, and the upper portion, when 

 mature, contains the dust-like, dingy spores. In this 

 species the stem occupies at least two-thirds of its 

 height, and it should be called the " long stemmed 

 puff-ball " {Lycoperdon saccatum). The receptacle or 

 peiidium is flattened, with regular depressions at 

 the top of the stem, around the base of the peridium, 

 so as to give a somewhat fluted appearance. The 

 spores, moreover, when examined uuder the micro- 

 scope, are rough or spiny ; in which feature they 



fig 1 . 251. Lycoperdon saccatum. a. Spore. 



agree with only one other British species. At 

 Albury in Surrey we met with hundreds of specimens 

 in one wood during last October, but only an occa- 

 sional solitary specimen elsewhere. 



--*< 



v^v- 



m. 



Pig. 252. Lycoperdon atropurpureum. a. Spore. 



The other species with rough or echinulate spores 

 is rarer still. We have never seen but one or two 



specimens. It occurs in pastures and has scarcely 

 any stem, being nearly pear-shaped ; this is named 

 lycoperdon atropurpureum. The mass of spores is of 

 a dark, purple-brown colour, whereby it may be 

 distinguished from all the others by the naked eye, 

 and the spores are larger than in Lycoperdon sac- 

 catum, or indeed any other British species. 



Fig. 253. Lycoperdon gemmatum. 



The commonest puff-ball is the "mealy puff-ball," 

 Lycoperdon gemmatum, which has its surface covered 

 with mealy warts, and when these are rubbed off 

 the scars are seen to be symmetrically arranged in 

 hexagonal forms. This puff-ball is at times borne 

 upon a long stem, but more commonly it is only nar- 

 rowed downwards, and in size varies from one inch 

 to three inches in diameter. If a section be cut 

 through a specimen lengthwise before the spores are 

 quite mature, a kind of column may be seen projected 

 upwards in the centre, and which is not to be found 

 in Lycoperdon saccatum. The spores, moreover, are 

 yellowish, or almost of the colour of "Scotch snuff," 

 small and smooth under the microscope. 



Fig. 254. Lycoperdon pyri/orme. 



The "pear-shaped puff-ball," Lycoperdon pyn- 

 forme, delights most in old decayed stumps. As its 

 name indicates, it has somewhat a pear- shape, and its 

 surface, though at first covered with minute scurfy 

 scales, is not scarred by them, and is quite smooth 

 when they fall away. As in the common or mealy 

 puff-ball, this species has] a projection rising up in 



