Setchell: Lycoperdon sculptum 293 



reports it from above Lake Tenaya, in Mariposa County, at an 

 altitude of between 8,200 and 8,300 feet. Mr. William E. Colby, 

 of San Francisco, Secretary of the Sierra Club, found it in the 

 Tuolumne Meadows, at about 8,500 feet and, tasting the raw flesh, 

 found it to be very agreeable in flavor. Mrs. Katherine Brande- 

 gee, of Berkeley, saw some specimens collected by others in the 

 Giant Forest of the Sequoia National Park, at an altitude of about 

 6,500 feet. 



From the evidence given above, it seems well ascertained that 

 the distribution of Lycoperdon sculptum extends at least from Sierra 

 Valley on the north, down along the Sierra Nevada and San Ber- 

 nardino Mountains to Bluff Lake and that in altitude, it ranges 

 from 4,800 feet up to 8,500 feet. The striking range as regards 

 altitude, as well as the extraordinary markings of this species may 

 well make one wonder as to whether it is likely to be retained in 

 Lycoperdon or one of its segregates, or made the type of a distinct 

 genus. While I do not intend to attempt to settle this question, 

 it seems desirable to add some description of the species drawn 

 from both the living and the dried specimens. 



So far as I may learn, Lycoperdon sculptum is most usually 

 found in alluvial soil and often among the willows which border 

 small streams, but it is also found in the drier soil under pines and 

 perhaps also under Sequoia gigantea. As I found it myself, there 

 were nearly a dozen specimens in the same small area, but often 

 single specimens are found with no others near them. They are 

 'airly conspicuous objects up to the time that the peridium falls 

 a way and exposes the spores. The peridium retains its light color 

 u ntil maturity. 



The shape of a well -developed specimen is that of a pear, 

 somewhat, or even considerably, flattened laterally. The size 

 Vanes fr °m about 10 to 20 cm. in the longest horizontal diameter 

 a ' ld the Plants reach a height of 10 to 15 cm. The sterile base of 

 e P u ffball is stout, usually buried in the ground, and it has the 

 re mnants of stout mycelial strands at its very base. This is well 

 represented in the upper and left middle specimens in the photo- 

 graph reproduced in connection with this paper. The upper por- 

 10n of the puffball is sometimes nearly globular, but is generally 

 Very de cidedly flattened laterally and has the outer peridium 



