550 MUSHROOMS, EDIBLE AND OTHERWISE 



cap-illitium are pale-greenish-yellow, then a dirty gray. The thread are simple, 

 transparent, much thicker than the spores. The spores are round, smooth, 3/j, in 

 diameter. 



I have found the plants frequently about Chillicothe on damp, moss-covered 

 logs and sometimes at the base of beech trees, when covered with moss. They are 

 very small, not exceeding one-half inch in diameter. The small ovoid form, with 

 the white, soft, delicate cortex, will serve to distinguish the species. Found from 

 September to October. 



B ovist a. Dill. 



The genus Bovista differs from Lycoperdon in several ways. When the 

 Bovista ripens it breaks from its moorings and is blown about by the wind. It 

 opens by an apical mouth, as does the genus Lycoperdon, but the species of 

 Bovista have no sterile base. They are puffballs of small size. The outer coat 

 is thin and fragile and at maturity peels off, leaving an inner coat firm, papery, 

 and elastic, just such a coat as is suitable for the dispersion of its spores. Leaving 

 its moorings at maturity, it is blown about the fields and woods, and with every 

 tumble it makes it scatters some of its spores. It may take years to accomplish 

 this perfectly. The species of the Lycoperdon do not leave their moorings natural- 

 ly ; their spores are dispersed through an apical mouth by a collapse of the walls 

 of the peridium, after the fashion of a bellows, by which spores are driven out to 

 the pleasure of the wind. In Bovista the threads are free or separate from the 

 peridium, but in Lycoperdon they arise from the peridium and also from the 

 columella. 



Bovista pila. B. & C. 

 The Ball-Like Bovista. 



Pila means a round ball. The peridium is globe-like, sessile, with a stout 

 mycelium, a cortex thin, white at first, then brown, 'forming a smooth continuous 

 coat, breaking up at maturity and rapidly disappearing. 



The inner peridium is tough, parchment-like, elastic, smooth, persistent, 

 purplish-brown, fading to gray. The dispersion of spores takes place through 

 an apical mouth. The capillitium is firm, compact, persistent, at first clay-colored, 

 then purple-brown ; threads small-branched, the ends being rigid, straight, pointed. 

 There is something so noticeable about this little tumbler that you will know it 

 when you see it, and if you often ramble over the fields you will soon meet it. 

 However, I have as yet seen only the matured specimens. 



