,g NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN. 



and Winter followed his classification. It differs essentially 

 from L. gemmatum in the the character of the warts. 



6. Lycoperdon pyriforme Schceff. 



Sporocarps ^-i inch in diameter and of about equal height, 

 usually densely cespitose or crowded, lignatile, obovoid or 

 obconic with short pedicel, mycelium-attached with abundant 

 white strands; outer peridium of scattered, dark brown warts 

 or short spines, persistent and sometimes areolate; inner perid- 

 ium pale, thin, tough; gleba olivaceous, capillitial threads thicker 

 than the spores, branched; sub-gleba white felt-like of very 

 small cells, spores globose, smooth, about 4 /i. 



Abundant on old logs or stumps, or more rarely on the 

 ground; usually cespitose, and sometimes extending several 

 feet, hundreds together! ''The commonest of all puff-balls; 

 distributed throughout the whole world." It is easily dis- 

 tinguished by its shape, the persistent character of the warts 

 and by its reddish appearance when dried. Some specimens 

 collected here resemble L. molle, but are smaller and distin- 

 guished by the character of the warts, which are those of L. 

 gemmatum. From the latter species L. -pyriforme is distin- 

 guished by its shape and by the white sub-gleba. 



7. Lycoperdon gemmatum Batsch. 



Sporocarps more or less cespitose, turbinate-stipitate, flat- 

 tened above, plicate and abruptly tapering beneath, lignatile or 

 sometimes terrestrial, from a fibrous mycelium; outer peridium 

 consisting of numerous spike-like warts with many smaller ones 

 interspersed, brownish or reddish, the larger first deciduous, 

 leaving a spotted, as if reticulate, surface; inner peridium thin, 

 tough, persistent, opening by a well-defined mouth; gleba at 

 first greenish-yellow, then brown, the capillitial threads arising 

 from the peridium and sub-gleba, generally simple, equalling 

 the spores; sub-gleba well developed arising within the perid- 

 ial cavity as a spherical columella; spores, globose, minutely 

 roughened, about 4 ft. 



A very common species, usually on rotten stumps, logs, 

 etc., in great crowded colonies, their thick, elongate cylindric 



