THE PUFFBALLS 



537 



Calvatia ccclata. Bull. 



The Carved Pufebael. Edible. 



Cselata, carved. Peridium large, obovoid or top-shaped, depressed above, 

 with a stout thick base and a cord-like root. Cortex a thickish floccose layer, with 

 coarse warts or 

 spines above, whitish 

 then ochraceous or 

 finally brown, at 

 length breaking' up 

 into areola which 

 are more or less per- 

 sistent ; inner per- 

 idium thick but frag- 

 ile, thinner about the 

 apex, where it finally 

 ruptures, forming a 

 large, irregular, torn 

 Dpening. Subgleba 

 occupying nearly 

 half the peridium, 

 cup-shaped above 

 and for a long time 

 persistent ; the mass 

 of spores and capil- 

 litium compact, far- 

 inaceous, greenish- 

 yellow or olivaceous, 

 becoming pale to 

 dark - brown- ; the 

 threads are very 

 much branched, the 

 primary branches 

 two or three times 

 as thick as the 



Figure 459. Calvatia caslata. 



spores, very brittle, soon breaking up into fragments. Spores globose, even, 4-4.5 

 in diameter, sessile or sometimes with a short or minute pedicel. Peridium is 

 three to five inches in diameter. Morgan. 



This species is much like the preceding but can be easily distinguished by the 

 larger size and the yellowish-olive color of the mature spore-mass. The sterile base 

 is often the larger part of the fungus and, as will be seen in Figure 459.it is anchored 



