Report of the Botanist. (59 



leaving the surface areolate-dotted or reticulate with a network of fine dotted 

 lines; capillitiuni and spores greenish-yellow, then dingy-olive or brown, 

 columella present ; spores smooth or very minutely rough, .00016' in diameter. 

 Edible, but not pleasant flavored. 



Ground and decaying wood in woods and fields. Very common. July — 

 October. 



This is one of the most common and, at the same time, one of the most 

 variable species. It is, therefore, more difficult to describe than to recognize 

 after its peculiar appearance is familiar. The most available marks of dis- 

 tinction are the larger, erect, pointed warts or spinules, scattered among the 

 minute ones, and giving the surface an appearance somewhat as if studded 

 with gems, and, when these have fallen, the little smooth dots or impressions 

 which they leave on the peridium. These are surrounded by the smaller and 

 more persistent warts, which usually form fine reticulating dotted lines, and 

 render the denuded peridium scabrous. In some instances, the warts on the 

 upper part of the peridium are more crowded than usual, and nearly uniform 

 in size ; but when they fall they leave the usual smooth dots or impressions 

 where they had stood. The denuded peridium is generally cinerous or 

 grayish and opake. The stem varies very much in thickness and length. In 

 some instances, it is almost or entirely wanting ; in others, it is elongated 

 nearly as much as in the Long-stemmed puff-ball. It is cylindrical or nar- 

 rowed downwards, and it may be nearly equal to the peridium in diameter, 

 or very much thinner. As in the preceding species, the larger warts gener- 

 ally occur on the upper part of the peridium and near the apex. When these 

 are close and nearly uniform in size, they give the plant a coarsely papillose 

 appearance, and if, at the same time, the stem is wanting, the plant becomes 

 the variety called papulation, or L. papulation Schoeff. Such forms 

 occur both with and without the stem, and cannot easily be kept distinct 

 from the ordinary forms. In the variety hirtum, or L. hirtum Mart., 

 the larger warts are reduced to slender bristle-like spinules, which are 

 . often blackish in color ; but they have an expanded base, and when they 

 fall off they leave the usual dot-like impressions and reticulations. This 

 form is rare with us. L. excipuliforme Pers., which is regarded by Fries as 

 a variety of this species, either does not occur with us or else I have confused 

 it with the ordinary forms of the species. It is characterized by its elongated 

 stem with a subplicate base, and its scattered subspinulose warts. Some- 

 times the larger warts are blackish, or tipped with black, and occasionally 

 they manifest a tendency to group themselves in a stellate manner. When 

 the plant is csespitose, it sometimes forms tufts of considerable extent. Such 

 tufts, fully two feet in diameter, and containing scores of plants crowded 

 together so compactly that their usual rounded form was lost, have fallen 

 under my observation. 



The following are the characters of the two varieties mentioned as they are 

 given in Systema Mycologicum : 



Var. hirtum. Turbinate, subsessile, hairy with soft slender warts which 

 generally become blackish. 



Var. papillatum. Subrotund, sessile, papillose, furfuraceous-pulverulent. 



Lycoperdon molle Pers. Soft Puff-ball. 



Peridium 6"-16'' broad, globose or depressed-globose, narrowed below into 

 a stem-like base, furfuraceous with nearly ^uniform persistent minute weak 

 spinules or granular warts, sometimes with a few larger papilliform ones 



