308 United States Species of Lycaperdon, 



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 areolae or impres- 

 sions which the}' leave on the peridium. These are sur- 

 rounded 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 areolse^vhere they had stood. The 

 denuded peridium is generally cinereous or grayish and 

 opake. The stem varies very much in thickness and in 

 length. In some instances it is almost entirely wanting, 

 in others it is elongated nearly as much as in the Long- 

 stemmed pufi'-ball; it may be cylindrical or tapering 

 downwards, nearly equal to the peridium in diameter or 

 very much more narrow. The larger warts, as in the pre- 

 ceding species, generally occur on the upper part of the 

 peridium and near the apex. When these are close 

 together 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 

 papillatunij or L. papillaium Schsefi*. Such forms occur 

 both with and without the stem-like base, and cannot easily 

 be kept distinct from the ordinary forms of the species. 

 In the variety hirtum, or L. hirium Mart., the larger warts 

 are reduced to slender bristle-like spinules, which are 

 often blackish in color, but they have an expanded base, 



