124 REPRESENTATIVE PLANTS 



Caution. N. B. Never eat unknown mushrooms, and 

 never trust any rule any one may give, except the exact 

 determination of the kind from some good work on mush- 

 rooms. 



Type 6. Puffballs ^ 



Habitat. These fungi grow in similar situations to 

 those occupied by the mushrooms, often in great numbers 

 and occasionally of enormous size, five to twenty pounds. 



Appearance. Examine puffballs of various sorts. Observe 

 the size, appearance, color, surface, and general shape of 

 each ; also their attachment to the soil or other object on 

 which the plant grows. 



Section. Examine puffballs in long section and observe 

 the base and the colored mealy sporemass occupying the 

 upper part of the plant. 



Spores. On jarring this sporemass, what do you observe? 

 How do the unripe puffballs differ from the ripe ones? 

 Why do these fungi have such rounded forms? Why do 

 they have so many spores? Examine some of the latter 

 with (hjy) and compare for size with the mushroom spores. 



Some puffballs are raised on stalks. What advantage 

 would this be ? Others have an outer skin that splits into 

 valves and recurves {earth stars), lifting the ball. Why? 



Drawings. Make drawings, external view and sections. 



Food value. All puffballs, when white in flesh and solid, 

 are edible, but they are not fit for food when the sporemass 

 is even slightly yellow tinted. Some forms grow to great 

 size and are among the best of mushrooms for the table. 



Rules for determination. It may be well here to empha- 

 size again, that there are ?io rtdes of common acceptance for 

 determining whether forms are poisonous or not, that are 

 loorth anything whatever. The only safe method is to learn 

 the name of each kind you find from some good descriptive 



1 Higher fungi. 



