168 THE GASTEROMYCETES OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 



7515. Under a hawthorn bush in the Arboretum, Sept. 2, 1924. Spores dark, spiny-warted, 8-12ji 

 with a halo. In this collection the peridium had apparently grown more after the maturity 

 of the gleba, leaving the latter as a loose ball inside. 



Also Nos. 5394, 5998, 6093, 7547, 7561. 



Wisconsin. Burlington. (Univ. Wis. Herb., as 5. verrucosum, and U. N. C. Herb.) Spores warted, 

 7-10/t. 



Scleroderma lycoperdoides Schw. 



Plates 94 and 120 



Gregarious or cespitose; body 0.8-5 cm. (most about 1.5-2.5 cm.) broad, usually- 

 broader than thick; surface light brown or yellowish brown and dotted all over with 

 minute darker brown or reddish brown, separated, inherent scales; becoming blackish 

 on long exposure; smooth or minutely roughened; flat below and abruptly rooted by a 

 stout embedded stalk of varying length which is soon dissipated into a few strong, 

 stout strands and plates or into many smaller fibers. Peridium thin, when fresh and 

 immature 0.5-0.7 mm. thick, becoming thinner and on the inside obscurely defined, the 

 inner layer becoming fibrous like the trama and continuous with it and wearing away 

 so as to leave in age only a very thin outer layer of a more leathery texture. Glebal 

 chambers very small, about 0.2-0.5 mm., the plates very thin and composed of delicate 

 rather straight hyphae about 2.5-3.5/u thick. Spore mass when very young watery 

 cream color, then deep brown and faintly purplish, changing to paler grayish brown 

 with or without a faint tint of olive after maturity; the delicate threads and plates of the 

 trama are not quickly disintegrated but remain as a decided matrix for the exposed 

 spores as they are slowly dissipated. There is no distinct dehiscence, but after much 

 delay there appears an irregular worn opening in the tip and there are often other pores 

 made by grubs. In age the stalk and all the basal part of the body are left as an empty 

 saucer. 



Spores deep brown, spherical, asperulate, not reticulated, very variable in size of 

 body and length of spines in the same plant: in No. 5201 they are 7. 5-18. 5^ (most about 

 11-14/i) thick excluding the spines which vary from a length of 2\x (rarely) to scarcely 

 more than pointed warts (all from one fully mature plant). In No. 3488 a halo was 

 noticed connecting the spine tips over a part of the spore surface in many cases. Basidia 

 (of No. 5253) 7-8.5ju thick with 4-8 sessile spores. 



While still half grown and before the gleba has a tint of brown the spores are formed 

 and the fertile tissue stuffing the chambers, including the basidia, has undergone a 

 disintegration into a translucent almost structureless mass surrounding and embedding 

 the spores, which at this time are hyaline, smooth and only about half the size they 

 attain later. It seems certain that the spores are nourished by the surrounding matrix 

 and undergo growth and maturation after separation from the basidia, as in 5. fuscum 

 (see under the genus). 



This is our commonest Scleroderma in Chapel Hill. It prefers damp, shaded places 

 on bare ground or in thin grass or moss, but is often found on rotten logs in swamps. 

 It appears every year in the same places. The correct name has been in much doubt. 

 In American herbaria and literature it appears as S. verrucosum (Bull.) Pers., or S. 

 tenerum B. & C. (Cuban Fungi, No. 512). It is certainly near S. verrucosum, as that 

 species is now understood in Europe, and larger individuals pass for that species in 

 America. In fact one meets rarely with small European specimens which cannot be 

 distinguished from the typical American form. Such a plant is represented in Rathay's 

 Flora Exs. Austro-Hungarica, No. 1559 (U. S. National Herbarium). We have always 

 felt with Lloyd that the European name could hardly be applied to the present small 

 species. A European plant from Bresadola's herbarium (as S. verrucosum) has spores 



