70 Thirty-second Report on the State Museum. 



toward the apex, whitish, sometimes tinged with yellow, when mature brown- 

 ish or olive-brown, nearly smooth, subshining ; capillitium and spores dingy- 

 olive, columella present ; spores minutely rou^rh, .00016'-.00018 in diameter. 



Among mosses, especially Polytrichum, in old meadows and pastures. 

 Albany, Summit and South Corinth. Autumn. 



This puff-ball closely resembles the ordinary forms of the preceding species 

 in the size, shape and color of the immature plant, and by Fries was referred 

 to it as a variety. There may be connecting forms, but if so, I have not 

 observed them, and for the present prefer to keep the two distinct. In this 

 plant, the warts or spinules are very small and weak, so that it has a smooth- 

 ish, soft and delicate appearance, much like that of L. saecatam. They are 

 mostly persistent, but wither or shrivel with age, so that the mature peridium 

 appears to the naked eye to be nearly smooth and somewhat glossy or shining. 

 In this respect it differs essentially from the Studded puff-ball. I have never 

 seen it with the dotted and reticulate surface of that species. From the 

 Long-stemmed puff-ball it is with difficulty separated in its immature state, 

 but when mature, the different manner in which the peridium of the two 

 species ruptures will at once distinguish them. From its habit of growing 

 among mosses, the stem is often elongated, and is sometimes very slender in 

 proportion to the size of the peridium. In wet weather the peridium of this 

 and the preceding species manifests a tendency to crack in areas. 



Lycoperdon pyriforme Schceff. Pear-shaped Puff-ball. 



Plant Q"-16" broad, 10-20'' high, generally csespitose, obovate, pyriform 

 or turbinate, sessile or with a short stem-like base, radicating with white branch- 

 ing and creeping root-like fibres, subumbonate, covered with very minute sub- 

 persistent nearly uniform warts or scales, often with a few slender scattered 

 deciduous spinules intermingled, pallid dingy-whitish or brownish ; capilli- 

 tium and spores greenish-yellow, then dingy-olivaceous, columella present; 

 spores smooth, .00016' in diameter. Edible, but not well-flavored. 



Decaying wood and ground both in woods and cleared lands Very com- 

 mon. July — October. 



The Pear-shaped puff-ball sometimes approaches L. gemrnatum in size and 

 shape, but it is not easily mistaken for that species because of the different 

 character of its warts. They are very numerous, small, nearly uniform in 

 size, and appear to the naked eye like branny scales. They are often quite 

 as distinct on the stem as on the peridium. They are quite persistent, but 

 sometimes fall from the upper part of the peridium, leaving it smooth and 

 whitish or cinerous. The peridium frequently cracks in areas, especially in 

 wet weather. One form occurs with the peridium abruptly narrowed into a 

 small, but distinctly scaly stem ; another is of a very pale color and almost 

 smooth, the warts being scarcely visible to the naked eye. In mountainous 

 forests, patches of this puff-ball which are several feet in length frequently 

 occur on old prostrate mossy trunks. Whole clusters of young plants may 

 sometimes be obtained attached together by their creeping radicular fibres. 



Lycoperdon subincarnatum Pk. Pinkish Puff-ball. 



Peridium 6 "-12" broad, globose, rarely either depressed or obovate, gre- 

 garious or csespitose, sessile, with but little cellular tissue at the base, covered 

 with minute nearly uniform pyramidal or subspinulose at length deciduous 



