REPORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 1901 977 



sometimes becomes a little paler with age. The flesh has a 

 grayish hue tinged with purple and in the cap varied with 

 darker dots. It is very firm and brittle when young but be- 

 comes softer with age. It is so peculiar in color and so unlike 

 any of our other species that it is easily recognized and needs 

 no extended description. 



The cap is 3-10 inches broad; the stem 2-4 inches long and 

 6-15 lines thick. It grows in woods or their borders and 

 appears in July and August. It is one of the best edible species 

 but unfortunately it is not abundant. Its large size however, 

 may compensate to some extent for its deficiency in numbers. 

 Sometimes a single large specimen is found growing entirely 



alone. 



Bovista plumbea Pers. 



LEAD COLORED BOVISTA 

 PLATE 81, FIG. 12-19 



Peridium globose or nearly so, 6-14 lines in diameter, smooth, 

 double, the exterior coat fragile, separable from the inner, break- 

 ing up and falling away at maturity, white when young, the 

 inner thin, papery but tough, smooth, plumbeous when old, 

 paler when first exposed, rarely becoming blackish with age, 

 mouth apical, small; threads of the capillitium branched, free, 

 the ultimate branches long, slender, gradually tapering to a 

 point, purplish brown; spores brown or purplish brown, sub- 

 globose, .0002-00025 of an inch long, nearly or quite as broad, 

 their pedicels slender, hyaline, persistent, two to three times 

 as long as the spores. 



The lead colored bovista is a small globular puffball found 

 growing on the ground in grassy places or in pastures. It ap- 

 pears both in autumn and in spring or early summer. It varies 

 in size from half an inch to one inch in diameter. When young 

 it is white both externally and internally, and while in this 

 condition it is available for food. It should be discarded if 

 the flesh has begun to lose its white color. As it approaches 

 maturity the exterior coat is easily broken and removable in 

 flakes or fragments. Its removal reveals the pale papery but 



