LYCOPERDACEAE 59 



Outer peridium thick, splitting at maturity into star-like rays from above downward and remain- 

 ing attached to the inner peridium by their united bases 



Inner peridium with a single, apical mouth Ceaster (p. 102) 



Inner peridium with several mouths and several pedicels Myriostoma (p. 138) 



Outer peridium splitting horizontally around the middle, the upper part with the inner peridium 

 attached breaking away and leaving the lower part in the ground as obscure fragments 

 or an obvious cup Disciseda (p. 139) 



CALVATIA Fries 



Plants large to very large, globose, flattened or pyriform, etc., with or without a 

 thick, stalk-like, sterile base; cortex thin, even or areolated (absent in C. rubro-flava) ; 

 inner peridium thin, delicate, not opening by a pore but falling away irregularly in 

 scales and plates from above downward and exposing the densely woven capillitium 

 composed of long, much branched threads which at maturity in most species are easily 

 broken into short pieces; sterile base (nearly absent in C. maxima) concave above, 

 persisting a long time as a cup-shaped remnant, easily distinguished from Lycoperdon 

 by the irregular scaling away of the peridia at maturity, and in most species by the 

 fragility of the capillitium. 



The sterile base is in most species sharply delimited by a diaphragm, and in this 

 case is obviously cellular. In C. rubro-flava and C. maxima there is no diaphragm 

 and the sterile base is homogeneous at maturity. 



The genus includes the large puffballs, one species (C. maxima) reaching the enor- 

 mous width of three feet or even more. They are important sources of food and should 

 be used whenever found in the young condition with white interior, but note that the 

 edibility of C. rubro-flava is not known. A neighbor of ours had some cooked and 

 reported that they were too bitter to eat. They may be poisonous. In regard to the 

 edibility of puffballs, it is interesting to note that Porcher (Resources of Southern Fields 

 and Forests, 2nd ed., p. 699. 1869) quotes a letter from Ravenel as follows: 



"It has been mentioned by medical writers that the spores of the puffballs have 

 narcotic properties, and it is an anaesthetic agent, acting somewhat like chloroform 

 when inhaled, but I have never experienced any effects of the kind from its use as a 

 vegetable. However, Dr. Harry Hammond, of Beech Island, S. C, writes to me, 

 'since writing to you, I and a number of others have made several meals on Lycoperdon, 

 and I think I have discovered in myself well marked evidences of a narcotic influence — 

 and two other experimenters have described similar sensations to me. I recollect also 

 to have heard from Mr. Mahan that a friend of his, a physician in Georgia, had been 

 seriously affected in this way by too large a meal on Lycoperdon.' 1 ' 



From the context it would seem that the puffball referred to is not C. maxima, 

 as stated, but C. cyathiformis, as the spores are spoken of as purplish. This note need 

 not deter one from eating these puffballs, as they are among the most esteemed of edible 

 fungi. The ripe contents of the larger puffballs have long had a reputation for stopping 

 the flow of blood (see, e.g., Lind, Danish Fungi as Represented in the Herbarium of 

 E. Rostrup, p. 401). 



Literature 



Cunningham. Gasteromycetes of Australasia. The Genus Cahaiia. Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W. 51: 



363, pis. 23, 24. 1926. 

 Lloyd. French Collections of Calvatia. Myc. Xotes, p. 264. 1906. 



L LIBRARV 



