Genus Lycoperdon 



spicules, on the tips of whicli are the spores. When the plant 

 is fully developed, the fleshy part becomes so filled with moisture 

 that water may be squeezed out as from a sponge. As the flesh 

 becomes moist, the colour changes from white, through yellow, 

 to olive. After the change in colour, the wet mass becomes dry 

 and powdery, a mass of globose spores and elastic threads or 

 capillitium. 



The Lycoperdons are of small size, usually found in fields and 

 woods. A section made by cutting a ball from top to base will 

 show that the threads form a more or less well developed sterile 

 base or subgleba underneath the fertile gleba, or mass of threads 

 containing spores. Sometimes the sterile threads from the base 

 rise upward in the centre of the fertile mass and form a little 

 column, the columella. Usually the threads which bear the 

 spores are in two sets ; one set extending inward from the walls 

 of the rind, and another set extending outward from the central 

 columella. 



Pear-shaped Puffball (Edible) 



Lycoperdon pyriforme 



Peridium or Pouch — Pear-shaped. Dingy white or brownish, with 



mycelium of long, white, branching fibres. Diameter Y\-\yi 



inches. Height 1-2 inches. 

 Bark or Outer Coat — Thin; of minute, often persistent, scales or 



granules, or short, stout spinules. Whitish grey or brownish. 

 Inner Coat — Smooth, papery, whitish grey or brownish, opening 



by apical mouth. 

 Subgleba — Small, white, quite compact, the cells minute. 

 Columella — Present. 



Spores — Globose, even, greenish yellow to brownish olive. 

 Threads — Branched, long, forming a dense tuft in the centre. 

 Time — July to October. 

 Habitat — On old timber or on the ground, in groups sometimes 



several feet across in extent. The commonest of puffballs, 



and found throughout the world. 



Pinkish Puffball (Edible) 



Lycoperdon subincarnatum (See Plate Facing Page 134) 



Peridium or Pouch — Globe-shaped, sessile, without a stem-like 

 base. Rarely over one inch in diameter. 



Py'-ri-f6r'-mS Sub-In'-c5r-na'-tum 



125 



