THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
VoL. xvut—OCTOBER, 1884.—No. 10. 
THE NORTH AMERICAN GEASTERS. 
BY A, P. MORGAN. 
HE Geasters are the most beautiful and: attractive of the 
puffballs, yet they seem not to be well understood. Most of 
them grow in woods about old stumps. and rotten logs; others 
grow among the old leaves, and are found expanded on their 
surface; G. minimus grows in meadows and grassy lands. 
They begin in a globose or ovoid form with a pointed apex ; 
they make a slow growth just beneath the surface of the ground 
Or under the leaves, often remaining closed for a long time; 
finally, with abundant rains in late summer or early autumn, 
they expand their segments and lift their puffballs into the 
ar. They dry up quickly and disappear with the clearing 
weather, so that specimens must be secured promptly after they 
have expanded. G. /imbatus, however, with us is found very late* 
‘autumn and during the mild rainy weather in winter. 
species are more or less gregarious in habit, though 
Some of them often occur singly. I have found more than twenty 
of the great G, triplex in one nest together. G. saccatus is found . 
commonly scattered about upon the leaves, sometimes in great 
numbers ; its mycelial threads run out over their surface from the 
little eggs, | 
Several of the species appear to be generally distributed, as 
 ambatus, minimus, fimbriatus, saccatus, hygrometricus, and 
When the species are better known it is quite likely others will be 
found in every part of the country. G. fornicatus, radicans, rufes- 
“ems are southern in their range. The beautiful G. umbilicatus 
has been found only in New. Jersey by Mr. Ellis; it is No. 110, 
G. mammosus Chev., of the N.. A. Fungi; but this is not possible 
XVIII—no, x ór 
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