THE PUFFBALLS 



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yellowish or brown. The inner peridinm is thin and fragile, after maturity break- 

 ing- up into fragments, apparently without any subgleba ; capillitium and spores 

 yellowish-green to dingy-olive. The spores are round, sometimes minutely warted. 

 Not common about Chillicothe, but in the northwestern part of the state they 

 are very plentiful in their season, and very large. Standing in Mr. Joseph's wood- 

 pasture, east of Bowling Green, I have counted fifteen giant puffballs whose 

 diameters would average ten inches, and whose cortex was as white and glossy 

 as a new kid glove. A friend of mine, living in Bowling Green, and driving home 

 from Deshler, saw in a wood-pasture twenty-five of these giant puffballs. Being 



Figure 455. Calvatia gigantia. One-fifth natural size, showing how they grow in the grass. 



impressed with the sight and having some grain sacks in his wagon he filled them 

 and brought them home. He at once telephoned for me to come to his house, as 

 the mountain was too big to take to Mohammed. He was surprised to learn that 

 he had found that proverbial calf which is all sweet-breads. That evening we 

 supplied twenty-five families with slices of these puffballs. 



They can be kept for two or three days on ice. The photograph, taken by 

 Prof. Shaffner of Ohio State University, will show how they look growing in the 

 grass. They seem to delight to nestle in the tall bluegrass. This species has been 

 classed heretofore as Lycoperdon giganteum. Found from August to October. 



