PUFF-BALLS, TOADSTOOLS AND 

 THAT SORT OF THING. 



" THE grisly toadstool grown there mought I see 

 And loathed paddock lording on the same." SI-KXSER. 



I WANT to say a word for these overlooked, 

 half-despised commonplaces of nature. 

 " Puff-balls " are known on sight by all fre- 

 quenters of fields and pastures and rural road- 

 sides. Country boys find some amusement in 

 squeezing the "smoke" out of them. They 

 are looked upon as things that grow without 

 seed or root, but come up at night in a hurry, 

 wherever they will. In England they were long 

 regarded as something not good. A common 

 name for them is the " Devil's snuff-box, " also 

 " Puck's fist " or " Puck-ball " and Puck here 

 is only another word for " Old Fellow." 



So far is this dainty thing from being a 

 "Devil's snuff-box v that it is a veritable casket 

 of wonders. It would require a large book to 

 explain and illustrate them all, but we will call 



