(lisli. It is found cliit'Hy in pastures iu the iiutunni. Soiuftimfs found 

 growing' in company witli Agaricus canipostris. Of ])k'usant flavor when 

 young. 



Fig. 11. Basidium and spores of a Lycoperdon highly magnified. 



An English author states that inflammation of the throat and swelling 

 of the tongue have been known to ensue from eating some of the small 

 species of Lycoperdon in the raw state. It would be a wise precaution, 

 therefore, to cook all of the smaller sjiecies well before eating. 



The genus Scleroderma is allied to Lycoperdon, but difters from it in 

 the absence of a capillitium, and in the thick indehiscent outer skin, or 

 peridium, which bursts irregularly on the maturity of the spore-mass, the 

 ilocci adhering on all sides to the peridium and foruiing distinct veins in 

 the central mass. 



The species Scleroderma vxilgare is very common in woods, and has 

 sometimes been mistaken for a form of Truffle. The plants are not very 

 attractive, and the odor is rank. They are subsessile and irregular in 

 shape, with a hard outer skin, the larger form of a yellowish or greenish 

 brown hue, and covered with large warts or scales, the smaller very 

 minutely w^arty, and of a darker brown hue. The internal mass is of a 

 bluish-black hue, threaded through with white or greyish flocci. Spores 

 dingy. The interior becomes pulverulent when the plant matures. This 

 species has been eaten in its young state when cooked, but the flavor is 

 by no means equal to that of the large puff-balls. It is sometimes 

 attacked by a fungus larger than itself, called Boletus ^jarasi^^'cMS, and this 

 parasite is again attacked by a species of Hypomyces, one of the genera 

 of the Pyrenomycetes, which grows iu patches upon dead fungi. 



Phalloide^k or Phallace^k. 



The Phalloidefe, sometimes called the " Stink-horn " fungi on account 

 of their fetid odor, are not numerous, the whole number of described 

 species being about eighty. The plants are watery, quick in growth, 

 and decay very rapidly. They are varied in form and are quite unlike 

 the ordinary mushroom types. In some of the genera the plants are 

 columnar and phalloid, in other clathrate or latticed, in others again 

 the disc is stellate, and in one genus it is coralloid, but they are all en- 

 closed, in the early stage, in a volva which is at first hidden or partially 

 hidden beneath the surface of the ground. A gelatinous stratum is 

 contained within the firmer outside membrane. 



Genus Ithyphallus. In this genus the cap is perforated at the top, 

 free from the stem and reticulate. No veil. The mature plants are 

 columnar in form with the remains of the volva enclosing the column-like 

 stem at the base ; the cap in its deeply pitted reticulations somewhat 

 resembling that of the Morel, although of different texture. 



