Puffballs 



Cup-shaped Puffball (Dangerous) 



Calvatia cyatbiformis (SEE PLATE FACING PAGE 134) 



Peridium Large, top-shaped. 



Bark or Outer Coat Thin, adherent, smooth, and continuous, 

 easily peeling off. 



Inner Coat Pale to dark purple, loosely woven, fragile at matur- 

 ity, breaking up into fragments from above downward. 



Subgleba Short and thick, with cord-like root, persistent, cup- 

 shaped, occupying l A-Yz the peridium. 



Spores and Threads Violet to dark purple. Spores globose and 

 warted, threads long. 



Time August to October. 



Habitat On the ground in meadows and pastures. 



The old name was Lycoperdon cyathiforme. Cyathiforme, 

 meaning cup-shaped, is suggested by the cup-like base which 

 remains after the dispersion of the spores and threads (capillitium). 



GENUS BOyiSTA 



In the genus Bo-vista the rind or peridium opens by an apical 

 mouth, as do the species of Lycoperdon, but the species of 



Bovista have no 

 sterile base. 

 They are puff- 

 balls of small 



Bovista 



Section of Bovista 

 (diagrammatic) 



size, growing 



in fields and 



woods. The 



outer coat is 



thin and fragile, 



and scales off 



at maturity. The inner coat is thin, becoming papery, and 

 then opens by an apical mouth. 



Bovista plumbea is esteemed a delicacy. It is shaped like a 

 flattened globe, with a smooth, white inner coat, and a lead- 

 coloured outer coat opening by an apical mouth. 



(^'-ath-l-for'-mls 



Bo-vKs'-ta 

 128 



