278 PHARMACEUTICAL B OT AN Y 



The pileus of Amanita muscaria is yellow, or orange-red; the 

 surface is smooth, with prominent warty scales. 



The pileus of Amanita phalloides varies from dull yellow to olive 

 to pure white. It does not possess the warty scales found in the 

 Amanita muscaria, but occasionally has a few membranous patches. 



Division b. Gasteromycetes 

 (Hymenium inclosed) 



Order i . Lycoperdales, or puff ball alliance . This order includes 

 a number of interesting parasites and saprophytes the most common 

 of which are the earth stars belonging to the genus Geaster and the 



FIG. 147. A colony of Puff Balls, Ly coper don, growing saprophytically upon a 

 portion of a rotten log. (Photograph by author.) 



puff balls, the most common form being Lycoperdon. In these, the 

 fruiting sporophore consists for the most part of a shell-like covering 

 called the peridium, composed of an outer layer or exoperidium and 

 an inner layer or endoperidium. The peridium in the unripe con- 

 dition of the sporophore covers a mass of soft cellular tissue called 

 the gleba. Upon the ripening of this mass, the interior is seen to be 

 divided into many-branched compartments that are separated from 

 each other by walls made up of branched hyphae. These walls are 

 lined with a hymenium composed of many basidia, each of which 



