United States Species of Lycoperdon, 



303 



The second is turbinate or subglobose and narrowed 

 below into a distinct though short stem-like base. It 

 varies in diameter from half an inch to an inch and a half 

 and is thickly beset with slender, bristle-like spinules 

 which are often blackish and give the plant a decidedly 

 hairy aspect. The largest specimens have the spinules a 

 little stouter and spmetimes stellately united. Such 

 specimens connect this with the next variety. 



The third form varies from one to two and a half 

 inches in diameter, and is generally furnished with a short 

 stem-like base. Its spines are quite coarse and often 

 crowded and stellately united. They give it a decidedly 

 rough or ech'inate appearance so that at first sight it might 

 be thought a distinct species, but the spines are easily de- 

 ciduous and individuals occur in which they are more 

 scattered and which have a mealy or pruinose surface, 

 by which characters this variety appears plainly to run 

 into the first. I regard the second and third as worthy 

 of a name and designate and define them as follows. 



Yar. hirtellum. Peridium hairy-spinulose with erect or 

 curved sometimes stellately united spinules, which are 

 often of a blackish color. 



Ground and decaying vegetable matter in woods. 



Var stellare. Peridium echinate or stellately echinate 

 with rather stout easily deciduous spines. 



Ground in woods and bushy places. 



In this species the capillitium and spores are at first 

 greenish-yellow, olive-tinted or brownish but when fully 

 mature they are purple-tinted. Some care will therefore 

 be necessary lest the last variety be confused with the 

 Echinate puff-ball, L. echinatum. This variety was re- 

 ferred in the Twenty-second N. Y, Cabinet Report to L. 

 calvescens B. & C. on the authority of one of the authors 

 of that species, but when the description of that species 

 was published the reference was found to be erroneous. 

 The larger purple-tinted rough spores forbid such a re- 

 ference. 



