136 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



abruptly narrowed below into a more or less stemlike base, the sur- 

 face covered with warts of unequal size, the larger ones solid, conic 

 or pyramidal, bluntly pointed, early deciduous, intermingled with 

 smaller granular and more persistent ones, where falling leaving 

 small pale dotlike spots on the inner peridium, about which the 

 smaller warts form rows of minute dots, white, whitish, grayish or 

 brownish, the apex or umbo sometimes more highly colored than 

 the rest, the old denuded peridium grayish, brownish or cinereous, 

 often retaining the dotlike spots for a long time; capillitium and 

 spores olivaceous ; spores globose, .00016 of an inch broad. 



The studded puffball grows on the ground and on decaying wood, 

 in woods, groves and open places and may be found from June to 

 October. It is a common and a very variable species. It is readily 

 distinguished from all our other species by the peculiar character of 

 its larger gemlike warts and the pale dots they leave on the inner 

 peridium when they have fallen. The anastomosing rows of the 

 smaller warts often give a reticulate appearance to the surface. The 

 stemlike sterile base is sometimes cylindrical and nearly equal in 

 diameter to the diameter of the peridium, sometimes it is much 

 more narrow and again it may gradually taper downward. In some 

 cases it is very short or wanting, in others it exceeds the peridium 

 in length. In large specimens it may be coarsely pitted at the top 

 or plicately grooved, the grooves often extending upward and form- 

 ing plications on the base of the peridium. In some specimens both 

 the grooves and pits occur. The larger warts are usually more 

 numerous and conspicuous on the upper half of the peridium and 

 are smaller and more scattered toward the base. Sometimes they 

 are tipped with black or brown, and in some specimens they are 

 more closely placed than in others. 



The outer coat should be removed before cooking. In the raw 

 state the taste is disagreeable, but cooking destroys this and makes 

 a very palatable dish of this common puffball. 



Clitocybe subcyathiformis n. sp. 



SAUCER CLITOCYBE 



PLATE 1 10, FIG. 1-6 



Pileus fleshy but thin, broadly convex or nearly plane becoming 

 centrally depressed, glabrous, hygrophanous, watery white when 



