DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME FAMILIAR MUSHROOMS. 143 



looking. In August it is a whitish puff-ball, 

 in the spring only a torn, brown cup. 



LYCOPERDON PYRIFORME = pear-shape. 

 The Pear-shaped Puff-ball. 



This species is shaped like a pear. It is from 

 1 to 4 inches high and is covered with persist- 

 ent warts so small as to look like scales to the 

 naked eye. It is of a dingy white or brownish- 

 yellowo Its shape separates it from the puff- 

 balls, especially from the warted puff-ball, 

 L. gemmatum, which is nearly round with a 

 base like a stem, an ashy-gray color, and the 

 surface is also warty, but unequally so, and as 

 the warts fall off they leave the puff-ball dotted. 

 The pear-shaped puff-ball has little fibrous root- 

 lets, and the plants grow in crowds on decay- 

 ins: trees. 



'& 



GEASTER HYGROMETRICUS = moisture, measure. 

 The Wandering Earth Star. 



This earth star is from 2 to 3^ inches wide. 

 It is sessile, of a brownish color, and changes 

 its form accordingly as the weather is moist or 

 dry, hence the name. It is contracted and 

 round in dry weather, and star-like in damp 

 atmosphere, with its lobes stretched out on the 



