SOME COMMON MUSHROOMS AND HOW TO KNOW THEM 53 
MUTINUS 
In the genus Mutinus the bey ieee or stalk is cellular or spongy, 
simple, elongated, cylindric tapering, with the gleba-bearing portion 
at the apex. The species of Mutinus are very similar in general form 
and color. 
MUTINUS CANINUS. DOG STINKHORN 
In this plant the stipe is hollow, perforate or imperforate, fusiform, white or 
reddish; spore-bearing portion of flesh is colored, sharply defined, cellular 
structure not uniform; 
e. g., the cells or minute 
chambers composing the 
Stem are larger than 
those of the gleba-bear- 
ing portion. 
This species is com- 
mon and appears in 
summer and autumn, 
occurring on the ground 
in woods. Its bright red 
color is conspicuous 
among the greens and 
browns of the woods as 
well as its odor, which 
though disagreeable is 
not as offensive as 
Ithyphallws impudicus. 
LYCOPERDACEAE 
(PUFFBALLS) 
The Lycoperdaceae 
include the puffballs 
and earth stars. They 
are more or less ball 
shaped, sometimes 
with a thickened base, 
sessile or indefinitely 
stipitate and when 
mature filled with a 
dusty mass consist- 
ing of spores and fine 
cobwebby filaments 
known as capillitium. 
In addition to the 
puffball type this 
family contains some 
very queer and strange fungi, which present great variation in shape, 
structure, and color. | 
Figure 45.—Ithyphallus impudicus 
LYCOPERDON 
Species of the genus Lycoperdon are small puffballs with a some- 
what thickened base and fibrous rooting mycelium. The covering or 
peridium consists of two layers. The outer layer, the cortex, breaks 
up into small, soft scales, spines, warts, or granules, which may soon 
disappear; the inner, the true peridium, is smooth, thin, and mem- 
branaceous, and opens by an apical mouth. When young the interior 
