74 THE GASTEROMYCETES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



also plants from Watlington, England, from Denmark, and from France. These last 

 three were kindly furnished by Kew Gardens, Romeh, and Patouillard, respectively. 



The spines vary considerably in length and delicacy : in our No. 7421 they are much 

 longer than in the Asheville plants or in any others we have seen. The spines of the 

 European plants are much shorter than in the Chapel Hill ones, and are stouter than 

 in any American specimen met with. Lloyd also notes the more slender spines of the 

 American form (Myc. Notes, p. 208). When the spines of our plants were fresh they 

 also were stout below, but in drying they shrank greatly. The spores of the plant 

 from Scarboro (Massee, coll.) are distinctly warted, 4.2-5. &fi; those of the plant from 

 Montmorency, France, 4.2-6. 2/j, with a distinct oil drop; those of the Asheville plants, 

 4.2-5. 5/i thick with pedicels usually broken off but sometimes with long ones present. 



In regard to L. echinatum, Romell writes that since Fries gives the spores of the 

 plant from Denmark as "6-7^" thick, he thought it might be different, but on receiving 

 a Denmark plant from Rostrup he found the spores to be no larger than in other speci- 

 mens, for example, one from Persoon's herbarium which were 4.5-6/*. These measure- 

 ments we can confirm for the Rostrup plant, which is the one sent us by Romell. 



The gleba color and the spore characters are about the same as in L. pulcherrimum, 

 but from that the present species is easily separated by the dark brown to blackish 

 spines at maturity, and the paler color and reticulated surface of the inner peridium 

 when the spines fall off, the reticulations being due to the minute granular particles 

 left around the bases of each fascicle of spines. Lycoperdon echinatum has also a strong 

 tendency to a more flattened shape. The color of the immature plant has rarely been 

 noted. Rea says that the young plants are white. In our collection the spines on the 

 basal hah of freshly opened plants were pale creamy brown at the tips, cream colored 

 at the base, and those at the very top dark brown. 



There is an odd contrast in the color changes in the present species and in L. 

 pulcherrimum. Both are light colored when young; in the last species as the plants 

 mature, the inner peridium soon becomes deep brown long before the spines fall off, 

 the bases of the spines in some areas becoming brown at times, but the tips remaining 

 white. In L. echinatum the opposite is the case, the tips of the spines soon become 

 brown, the bases and inner peridium remaining cream colored, in fact the peridium 

 remains cream colored for some little time after the spines fall off, turning brown 

 gradually on exposure, in some cases remaining very pale. The scurfy dots that later 

 form the reticulum are deep brown even in young stages. 



Peck seems to have treated the present species as L. atropurpureum var. stellare, 

 as shown by a plant so determined by him at the New York Botanical Garden. A good 

 collection from New Zealand, labelled L. echinatum (gift of Mr. G. H. Cunningham), 

 looks exactly like our plants, but has distinctly smaller spores (3.5-4/x thick) and less 

 warted than in ours. 



Lycoperdon compactum Cun. is a New Zealand species with similarly reticulated 

 peridium, but differing otherwise (Lycoperdaceae, etc., p. 195). 



Illustrations: Dufour. Atlas Champ., etc., pi. 74, No. 169. 

 Fries. Th. C. E. Sveriges Gasteromyceter, fig. 14. 

 Hollos. 1. c, pi. 17, figs. 11-14 and 18-24. 

 Leuba. Champ. Comest, pi. 52, figs. 1-6. 



