THE PUFFBALLS 



535 



Calvatia Marina. Berk. 

 Lilac Puffbaix. Edible. 



The peridium is three to six inches in diameter ; globose or depressed globose ; 

 smooth or minutely floccose or scaly ; whitish, cinereous-brown or pinkish-brown, 

 often cracking into areas in the upper part ; commonly with a short, thick, stemless 

 base ; capillitium and spores purple-brown, these and the upper part of the peridium 

 falling away and disappearing when old, leaving a cup-shaped base with a ragged 

 margin. Spores globose, rough, purple-brown, 5-6.5 broad. Peck, 48th Rep. N. Y. 

 State Bot. 



It is very common all over the state. I have seen pastures in Shelby and 



Figure 457. Calvatia lilacina. 



Defiance counties dotted all over with this species. When the inside is white, they 

 are very good and meaty. No puftball is poisonous, so far as is known, but if the 

 inside has turned yellowish at all it is apt to be quite bitter. It will often be seen 

 in pastures and open woods in the form of a cup, the upper portion having 

 broken away and the wind having scooped out the purple spore-mass, leaving 

 only the cup-shaped base. The specimens in Figure 457 are just beginning to 

 crack open and to show purplish stains. They represent less than one-fourth of 

 the natural size. They look very much like the smaller sized C. gigantea, but the 

 purple spores and the subgleba at once distinguish the species. This species, 

 found from July to October, is sometimes classed as Lycoperdom cyathiforme. 

 The photograph was taken by Prof. Longyear. 



