LYCOPERDACEAE 



Fruit bodies exposed at all stages or subterranean until just before maturity. 

 Peridium consisting of more than one layer (very obscure in Calvatia rubro-flava, and in 

 some Lycoperdons where the outer layer may consist of only scattered particles or 

 flakes). Gleba at maturity breaking down into a dry powder which contains the spores. 

 Capillitium always present but sometimes (as in Disciseda) obscured by fragmentation 

 after maturity. Basidia borne in a distinct hymenium surrounding small chambers 

 or (in Disciseda) scattered in irregular groups without a distinctly organized hymenium 

 or chambers. Basidia club-shaped with four (rarely fewer) spores borne on apical 

 sterigmata; spores growing to full maturity on the basidia. 



It will be noticed that this description does not include the genus Arachnion. We 

 have found it impossible to retain it and have any character left to determine the 

 Lycoperdaceae. 



The lower part of the fruit body is often sterile and persistent and composed of 

 larger compartments than the fertile part above. The former is called the subgleba 

 and from it may extend up into the fertile tissue a more or less well developed column of 

 sterile tissue called the columella. In most species the spores escape from a single, 

 definite apical pore in the inner peridium. In Myriostoma there are several mouths, 

 in Disciseda a basal mouth and in Calvatia no definite mouth, the whole upper part 

 of the peridium flaking away. The family includes all the well known puffballs and 

 earth stars. The larger puffballs when young and white (before the spores begin to 

 ripen) are not only edible but very palatable and they should be much more used as 

 food. 



For literature see under the order (p. 194) and genera. 



Key to the Genera 



Fruit bodies small, densely clustered on a common, leathery subiculum covering the substratum 



Diplocystis (West Indian) (p. 143) 

 Not as above 



Outer peridium (cortex) thin, mostly peeling off in flakes or wearing away; inner peridium thick, 

 firm and corky when dry, opening from above by irregular flaps and fissures, capillitium 

 of separate threads with thorny prickles and a few short branches . .Mycenastrum (p. 101) 

 Outer peridium thin, mostly peeling off in flakes; innerperidium opening by an apical pore, firm 

 and resilient, retaining its form for some time after maturity; capillitium of smooth, 

 separate threads with slender, pointed branches; mature plants loosened from place 



of growth and rolled about by the wind (the tumblers) Bovista (p. 97) 



Outer peridium thick or thin, scaling off in flakes or particles or wearing off by degrees or more or 

 less persistent; inner peridium usually flaccid and collapsing or breaking up as the spores 

 emerge; plants normally remaining attached to place of growth 



Capillitium of separate threads with slender, pointed branches Bovistella (p. 94) 



Capillitium of long interwoven threads that are not separable into unbroken units (in the 

 case of Calvatia breaking up into short pieces except in some specimens of C. data) 



Peridium opening by a definite mouth Lycoperdon (p. 69) 



Peridium irregularly ruptured by the scaling off of fragments above; plants large (at 



times small in C. rubro-flava) Calvatia (p. 59) 



58 



