60 MUSHKOOMS. 



3, the Puff-balls (Lycoperdons) ; 4, the Stink 

 horns (PhalloidaB.) 



Order 1. SCLERODERMA, THE THICK-SKINNED 



FUNGI. 



Our attention will be confined to only one 

 genus, and, indeed, one species of this family. 

 We often see in our walks what at a first glance 

 look like potatoes lying along the road, and the 

 suggestion arises that some careless boy has 

 been losing potatoes from his basket on his way 

 home from the country store. "We stoop to 

 pick them up, and find them rooted to the 

 ground and covered with warts and scales. 

 We cut them open and find them a purplish- 

 black color inside. It is a mass of closely 

 packed unripe spores. In a few days the upper 

 jmrt of the outside covering decays, bursts 

 open, and the ripe spores escape. This is 

 called the common hard-rind fungus, or Sclero- 

 derma vulgare. 



Order 2. NIDULARIA, THE BIRDS-NEST FUNGI. 



This is again divided into three genera. 

 The Crucible (crucibulum), the Cup (Cya- 

 thus), the Bird's-nest proper (Nidularia.) 



