United States Species of Lycoperdon, 311 



Lycoperdon ptriforme Schcef, 



Pear-shaped Puff-ball. 



Plant 6'' -15" broad, 10'' -20" high, generallv caespi- 

 tose, ohovate pyriform or turbinate, sessile or with a short 

 stem-like base, radicating with white branching and creep- 

 ing root-like fibres, subiimbonate, covered with very 

 minute subpersistent nearly uniform warts or scales, often 

 with a few slender scattered deciduous spinules inter- 

 mingled, pallid dingy-whitish or brownish ; capillitium 

 and spores greenish-yellow, then dingv-olivaceous, co- 

 lumella present ; spores smooth, 00016' in diameter. 

 Edible but not well flavored. 



Decaying wood and ground in woods and cleared lands. 

 Very common. July — October. 



The Pear-shaped puff-ball sometimes approaches L, 

 gemmatum 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 rather persistent, but sometimes 

 fall from the upper part of the peridium leaving it smooth 

 and whitish or cinereous. 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 subincarnattjm Pk. 

 Pinkish Puff-ball. 



Peridium 6"-12" broad, globose, rarely either depressed 

 or obovate, gregarious or csespitose, sessile, with but little 



