Order Gasteromtcetes.' * Suborder Trichoffastres} 



Plate XXIII. 



LYCOPERDON CCELATUM, Buiuard. 



Embossed Pv-ff-ball. 

 Subgenus Lycopekdon. 



Gen. Char. Peridium membranaceous, with an adnate subpersistent bark ; within, furnished at the base with a 

 spongy sterile stratum. CapUlitium unequal. 



Spec. Char. Lycopekdon ccelatum. Peridium usually not more than from three to six inches across, 

 occasionally much larger ; collapsing above, obtuse, apex dehiscent, at length open and cup-shaped ; barren stratum 

 cellular ; internal peridium distinct from the nearly free, collapsing capQlitimn. Spores yellowish oUve-green. 

 Remarkable for its spongy, blunt, obconic base, above which the cavity is sublenticular. In consequence of the 

 simple orifice, the mass of flocci and spores does not fall out, but coUapses, until, by decay, the upper part of the 

 fimgus is completely broken up ; the odour is then very ofi'ensive. Not esculent. 

 Lycopekdon ccelatum, BuUiard, Fries, Berkeley. 



Hab. Not common. Hayes, of small dimensions, on the open heath. In Devon, as large as Lycoperdon 

 ijiganteum, in pasture groimd. 



Bulliard's figures of this Pufl^-ball, so handsome when not advanced beyond maturity, are most 

 excellent ; they cannot admit of mistake. The peculiar outer coat of the peridium breaks into small poly- 

 gonal portions, nearly regular in size and shape; these, by the continued expansion of the Puff-ball, 

 become isolated, continuing opake and densest in their central point, to which the marginal parts converge 

 in ribs, so that each resembles a tiny flattened limpet-shell; the spaces between consisting merely of the inner 

 membrane composing the sac, which is very fragile, tender, and easily ruptured. As fast as the spores 

 ripen they show through it, then break through it, more immediately round the apex, where openings are 

 irregularly formed ; then the central portion collapses, falls in, decays, and the contents gradually ooze 

 away in the form of a yellowish-obve foetid mud, in which the spores are involved, while the base of the 

 receptacle remains long after, and might be easily mistaken for a decaying Peziza. 



Lycoperdon giganteum breaks into large polygons occasionally, when the growth has been too rapid 

 for the strength of the enclosing sac ; but the deep fissures into the substance of the ball are very different 

 from the cuticular cracking of L. ccelatum : this latter fungus is at no period smooth — in youth it has 



' From yatrriip, the ielly, and ^vxijf, a fungus. Hymenium included within the uteriform excipulum. 

 ' Prom 6p\^, a hair, and yaa-Tfjp, the belly. At first fleshy. 



