164 THE GASTEROMYCETES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



remaining smooth or less often becoming cracked up toward maturity over part of the 

 top into rather small, flattish areas about 1-3 mm. broad. Color buffy yellow to buffy 

 when young, then leather color or sordid brown, the top tending to become blackish 

 after maturity, and with black spots often present on paler plants. Peridium when 

 fresh only 0.7-1 mm. thick, pure white in section and not changing when cut or rubbed, 

 hardly more than 0.5 mm. thick when dry, at maturity splitting irregularly at the top; 

 the spore mass soon becoming very dark blackish brown with a tint of chocolate. 

 Tramal plates obviously yellow and until full maturity or after very distinct and perfect, 

 the threads of the plates peculiar in that they swell and regain their form in water and 

 can be distinctly seen to have clamp connections. 



Spores (of No. 725) about blackish brown of Ridgway, spherical, in most cases 

 reticulated, but only imperfectly so in some, with a halo about the reticulum, 9-15.5m 

 thick, including the reticulum which is up to 3yu high. 



There are in herbaria two plants passing for S. bovista, the one here described (our 

 No. 725, etc.) and the following (our No. 5920). The first is in almost full agreement 

 with Hollos's description and figures and we are considering it the species in his sense. 

 Both plants are found in Bresadola's herbarium under the name S. bovista. The one 

 here described is represented there by plants from Cincinnati, Ohio, sent by Lloyd, and 

 illustrated by him as S. Texense (cited below). Lloyd's plant is the exact form as ours 

 in every detail. The other form is represented by a European plant collected by 

 Bresadola which is exactly like our No. 5920. It is larger than No. 725, has a longer 

 and stouter rooting mass, a more yellow color, much thicker peridium, distinctly 

 paler and larger spores, and tramal plate cells which do not regain their form when 

 put in water. The English plant figured by Lloyd in Myc. Notes No. 8, fig. 43 is like 

 our No. 5920 in appearance, and he says he has the same thing from Falmouth, Mass., 

 growing in clear beach sand, exactly the kind of habitat of our No. 5920. 



Which of these two plants is the S. bovista of Fries we do not know, but think it 

 likely that the species is truly represented by our No. 725 and Lloyd's plants from 

 Cincinnati; and that our No. 5920 and the plant from Bresadola (and probably Lloyd's 

 plant from Massachusetts) represent another species that has not been correctly 

 understood. Petri's treatment of 5. bovista Fries apparently covers this plant. 



Illustrations: Hollos. 1. c, pi. 23, figs. 16-20. 



Lloyd. Lycoperdaceae of Australia, pi. 31, figs. 2-5. 1905. 



Massee. 1. c, pi. 2, fig. 36 (the spore drawn here does not show the reticulum). 



Petri. 1. c, fig. 54, No. 2. 



600a. On cinder track with clay underneath, October 13, 1911. 



725. On damp ground in Arboretum, September 8, 1913. 

 5880 and 5885. On damp soil on bank of New Hope Creek, October 8, 1922. 



7113. On ground in Arboretum, September 10, 1923. Spores 9.7-14.8^ thick, usually reticulated. 

 8150. Grassy pasture on Glen Burnie farm, Oct. 11, 1926. Spores strongly reticulated, 9.5-13.5/: 



thick. 

 Ohio. Cincinnati. Lloyd, coll. (Bresadola Herb.). 



Scleroderma bovista Fries. Sense of Bresadola 



Plates 90 and 120 



Fruit body irregularly globose; depressed above, deeply and widely plicate beneath, 

 3-5 cm. thick; sordid yellow, the peridium rigid and brittle when dry and about 1 mm. 

 thick, very slightly to considerably squamulose, the very small inherent scales being 





