( n6 ) 



A N 



CXLIV. 



ceri/tnum. 



HISTORY of FUNGUSSES, 



GROWING about HALIFAX. 



GENUS IX. 



LYCOPERDON. 



LYCOPERDON ghbo/um folidiufculum lacerum centra farinefiero radice infiruclum. Sp. 



PI. 1653. Hall. Hi/?. 219, I. Sterb. Fung. t. 32, fig. B. B. B^. Lycoperdon 



fpadiceum. Schaf. Fung. t. 188. Dick/on Crypt, faf. I. p. 25. Mich Gen. t. 99. 



fig. 2, 3, 4. Lycoperdon aurentium. Bulliard, pi. 270. Vaill. Paris, t. 16. 



fig. 5, 6, 7. 8. 



SUBTERRANEOUS PUFF-BALL. 



TAB. CXVI. 



THIS Puff-Ball fometimes grows to a confiderable fize, under ground. I have 

 fometimes found it the iize of fig. a. in the plate ; it is then deftitute of proper 

 roots, but emits here and there an hairlike fibre from its furface ; it is then of a brown 

 colour on the outfide, rough to the touch, and the furface fometimes covered with 

 papilla: ; fometimes marked with furrows, which imitate a rude kind of network, or 



covered with angular warts, of various irregular fides ; fometimes fmooth, as at a. a 



in this ftate it is firm and folid, fo as to refill: the ftrongeft preffure between the hands. 

 The bark is very thick, and its fubftance white. The internal fubftance of the plant of 

 a milk colour, and a \ery clofe texture. 



When it arifes above the furface, thofe fibres which chance to be loweft, form them- 

 felves into a root, as at b. c. d. the plant increafes in growth, and the figures on its bark 

 are proportionably enlarged ; it ail'umes a variety of colours, when expofed to the air, 

 as yellow, green, brown, reddiih, &c. &c. When further grown, the milk colour 

 changes to a purple, and is beautifully netted with black veins; at laft it changes quite 

 black. I have obferved it in all thefe Hates, in various places in this neighbourhood. 



In its fmooth ftate it is the Lycoperdon fipadkeous of Sch^ffer ; when covered with 

 rifing warts it makes the Lycoperdon aurentium of Bulliard, and the Lycoperdon of 

 Vaillant, t, 16, fig. 8. 



The bark never breaks, as in the Dully Puff-Balls; it is perforated in many places 

 by (mMficorabeii, which feed in great numbers upon the internal fubftance ; by means 

 of which infecls, the feeds are, probably, conveyed into the earth, for the production 

 of future plants. In Bulliard's figure, a fine conjectural fmoke arifes from one of 

 thefe perforations. 



