LYCOPERDACEAE 87 



Lycoperdon fuscum Bonorden 



Plates 42 and 113 



Plants, in our collections, broadly top-shaped or pyriform or subglobose, about 

 1.8-3.5 cm. broad, with a short stalk; covered with slender, delicate, dark brown to 

 blackish spines about 0.5 mm. long which are either single or grouped in fascicles of 

 several with the tips usually incurved, and which are long persistent; they are not 

 intermixed with other granular or scurfy material and on falling away finally they leave 

 the dark brown inner peridium quite smooth and shining. Subgleba small, in the pres- 

 ent form occupying only about a sixth of the body, in one form nearly absent (see below) ; 

 chambers of moderate size. 



Spores (of No. 5525) dusky olivaceous, spherical, 4-4.8m thick, distinctly dotted 

 with warts which project through the hyaline coat. Capillitium threads slightly 

 branched, up to 3.7m thick, with thick, pitted walls. 



The plant described above is the dark-colored, often large form with dark brown 

 inner peridium and persistent spinules. We also have the form known as L. dryinum 

 and one approaching the form L. cupricum. The former is a small plant with very short 

 black spinules, silvery brown inner peridium, and little or no subgleba (No. 5777). 

 The latter is a plant of moderate size with slender, rather scattered, black spinules and a 

 golden brown to coppery brown inner peridium (No. 5719). All forms are separated 

 from related species by the very slender spines which soon turn dark brown to black 

 and which are so openly placed as to clearly show the smooth surface of the inner per- 

 idium between them. These spines are the only covering of the inner peridium and are 

 not intermingled with scurfy or granular material. The resulting appearance in the 

 fresh plant is remarkably like that of a baby's head, set with thin dark hair. All 

 forms grow in deciduous woods on leaves or rotting wood. 



Illustrations: Hollos. 1. c, pi. 21, figs. 1-7 and 18. 

 Lloyd. Myc. Works, pi. 45 (back), figs. 1-7. 



North Carolina. Blowing Rock. Coker and party, August 1922. No. 5525. On bark of dead fron- 

 dose tree near ground. No. 5642. In thick humus on a mossy rock. Spores minutely warted, 

 pedicellate with ends of pedicels broken off and mixed with the spores, 4.4-5. 5m- No. 5777. 

 On leafy mold, deciduous woods (L. dryinum form). No. 5779. Among frondose leaves. 

 Typical; spores pedicellate, faintly dotted, 4.4-5m. (U. N. C. Herb.) 

 Linville Falls. Coker and party, August 1922. No. 5719. Among leaves in deep frondose woods 

 (L. cupricum form). (U. N. C. Herb.) Spores pedicellate, 4-4.8m, faintly warted and sur- 

 rounded by a hyaline coat. 



Washington. Langley. Grant, coll. (U. N. C. Herb.). This is a form with minute dark warts instead 

 of spines. Spores minutely warted, 4.2-5. 5m, with a small, dark mucro. Capillitium 

 branched, up to 5m thick, distinctly pitted. 



Lycoperdon marginatum Vitt. 



L. papillatum Schaeff . in sense of Hollos 

 L. cruciatum Rostk. 

 L. separans Peck 

 L. caivescens B. & C. 



Plates 55, 56 and 113 



Plants 1.2-4.5 cm. broad and nearly always broader than tall; narrowing below to a 

 short stem and root. Cortex pure white, then a little discolored or pinkish, becoming 

 clay colored or deep brown in age, composed of densely set, sharp, erect warts which are 



