REPORY OF THE BOTANIST. 69 
leaving the surface areolate-dotted or reticulate with a network of fine dotted 
lines; capillitium and spores greenish-yellow, then dingy-olive or brown, 
coiumella present ; spores smooth or very minutely rough, .00016/ in diameter, 
Edible, but not pleasant flavored. 
Ground and decaying wood in woods and fields. Very common. July— 
October. 
This is one of the most common and, at the same time, one of the most 
variable species, It is, therefore, more difficult to describe than to recognize 
after its peculiar appearance is familiar. The most available marks of dis- 
tinction are the larger, erect, pointed warts or spinules, scattered among the 
minute ones, and giving the surface an appearance somewhat, as if studded 
with gems, and, when these have fallen, the little smooth dots or impressions 
which they leave on the peridium. These are surrounded by the smaller and 
more persistent warts, which usually form fine reticulating dotted Jines, and 
render the denuded peridium scabrous. In some instances, the warts on the 
upper part of the peridium are more crowded than usual, and nearly uniform 
in size; but when they fall they leave the usual smooth dots or impressions 
where they had stood. ‘The denuded peridium is generally cinerous or 
grayish and opake. The stem varies very much in thickness and length. In 
some instances, it is almost or entirely wanting; in others, it is elongated 
nearly as much as in the Long-stemmed puff-ball. It is cylindrical or nar- 
rowed downwards, and it may be nearly equal to the peridium in diameter, 
or very much thinner. As in the preceding species, the larger warts gener- 
ally occur on the upper part of the peridium and near the apex. When these 
are close and nearly uniform in size, they give the plant a coarsely papillose 
appearance, and if, at the same time, the stem is wanting, the plant becomes 
the variety called papillatum, or L. papillatwm Scheff. Such forms 
occur both with and without the stem, and cannot easily be kept distinct 
from the ordinary forms. In the variety hirtwm, or L. hirtwm Mart., 
the larger warts are reduced to slender bristle-like spinules, which are 
often blackish in color; but they have an expanded base, and when they 
fall off they leave the usual dot-like impressions and reticulations. This 
form is rare with us. L. excipuliforme Pers., which is regarded by Fries as 
a variety of this species, either does not occur with us or else I have confused 
it with the ordinary forms of the species. It is characterized by its elongated 
stem with a subplicate base, and its scattered subspinulose warts. Some- 
times the larger warts are blackish, or tipped with black, and occasionally 
they manifest a tendency to group themselves in a stellate manner. When 
the plant is czespitose, it sometimes forms tufts of considerable extent. Such 
tufts, fully two feet in diameter, and containing scores of plants crowded 
together so compactly that their usual rounded form was lost, have fallen 
under my observation. 
The following are the characters of the two varieties mentioned as they are 
given in Systema Mycologicum : 
Var. hirtwm. Turbinate, subsessile, hairy with soft slender warts which 
generally become blackish. 
Var. papillatum. Subrotund, sessile, papillose, furfuraceous-pulverulent. 
LYcoPERDON MOLLE Pers. Sorr Purr-BA.t. 
Peridium 6’—16’ broad, globose or depressed-globose, narrowed below into 
a stem-like base, furfuraceous with nearly uniform persistent minute weak 
spinules or granular warts, sometimes with a few larger papilliform ones 
