THE PUFFBALLS 561 



surface of the peridium is smooth, dingy-white or ash-colored, with minute white 

 spots, due to scales. It is of various shapes ; acute-ovate, sometimes obtuse, nearly 

 spherical, sometimes slightly depressed and irregular cone-shaped. The gleba is 

 composed of semi-persistent cells, plainly seen with a glass or even with the naked 

 eye. It has no capillitium. The spores are globose and smooth, often apiculate. 

 This plant is quite abundant about Chillicothe, and I have found it from the first 

 of May to the last of October. 



This species is widely distributed in America, and occurs in Northern Africa 

 and Eastern Europe. 



Polysaccum. DeC. 



Polysaccum is from polus, many, and saccus, a sack. Peridium irregularly 

 globose, thick, attenuated downward into a stem-like base, opening by disintegra- 

 tion of its upper portion ; internal mass or gleba divided into distinct sac-like cells. 



Allied to Scleroderma and distinguished by the cavities of the gleba containing 

 distinct peridioles. Massee. 



Polysaccum pisocarpinm. Fr. 



Pisocarpium is from two Greek words meaning pea and fruited. 



Peridium irregularly globose, indistinctly nodulose, passing downward into 

 a stout stem-like base, peridioles irregularly angular, 4-5x3^, yellow. Spores 

 globose, warted, coffee-color, 9-13^. Massee. 



I have found this plant only a few times about Chillicothe. Mr. Lloyd 

 identified it for me. It has very much the shape of a pear. The skin is quite 

 hard, smooth, olivaceous-black with yellow mottling patches not unlike the skin 

 of a rattlesnake. The peridioles, which are small ovate sacs bearing the spores 

 within, are very distinct. The interior of the plant when mature is dark, and it 

 breaks and disintegrates from the upper part very like C. cyathiformis. This 

 is a very interesting plant whose ovate sac-like cells will easily distinguish it. 

 Found from August to October, it delights in sandy soil, in pine or mixed woods. 



Mitremyces. Nees. 



Mitremyces is made up of two words : mitre, a cap ; myces, a mushroom. 

 It is a small genus, there being but three species found in this country. The 

 spore-mass or gleba, in its young state, is surrounded by four layers. The outer 

 layer is gelatinous and behaves itself somewhat differently in each species. This 

 outer layer is known as the volva or volva-like peridium, which soon disappears. 



