United States Species of Lycoperdon. 315 



specimens. All except three are known to occur in the 

 State of IN'ew York. Of the more common ones the locali- 

 ties are not given. They probably occur in nearly all the 

 states of the Union. A few yet remain of which I have 

 seen no specimens or only imperfect ones. Of these I 

 quote the descriptions as I find them, merely adding a few 

 comments. 



Ltcoperdon Curtisii Berk. 

 Curtis's Puflf-ball. 



" About one-third of an inch across, springing from a 

 short rooting base ; globose, rough with echiniform warts, 

 pallid ; flocci, and the smooth, globose spores, .0001' in 

 diameter, clay colored. JS'orth Carolina, Curtis^ Connec- 

 ticut, Wright." Grevillea, vol. 2, p. 60. 



The small size of the spores, if the diameter is correctly 

 given, will distinguish this species from all our other puff- 

 balls. I have seen no specimens. 



Lycoperdon calvescens B. ^ C. 



" About one inch and one-fourth across, springing 

 from a short rooting base, at first clothed w^ith minute 

 echinate warts, which soon drop off, and leave the peri- 

 dium minutely velvety. Capillitium and even globose 

 spores, .00016' in diameter ; clay-colored. The spores ap- 

 pear at first to be pedicellate, but if so the pedicels soon 

 drop off. Connecticut, Wright." L. c. pp. 50 and 51. 



I have seen only a single authenticated but dried and 

 pressed specimen of this and I can not consider it specifi- 

 cally distinct from L. Wrightii. As already shown, the 

 velvety surface of the denuded peridium is not a good 

 specific character. There remains then only the short 

 stem-like base to separate L. calvescens from L. Wrightii, 

 and this is scarcely of specific value. Indeed in my copy 

 of Ravenel's Fungi Car. Exsic, of the specimens labelled 

 *' Lycoperdon gemmatum Fr.," Fasc lY, number 73, two 

 individuals have the stem-like base, while the third is 

 without it. The two answer exactly to the description of 



