The Sierran Puff hall. 



41 



graph. They show the sculpturing of the surface very 

 well. 



Owing to the scarcity of the Sierran Puffball, I do 

 not suppose that any one has had the opportunity to 

 try its flavor when cooked. The specimens I found were 

 mature, and so dry and dusty that eating was out of 

 the question ; but should any be found in the stages when 

 the interior is solid and white, it would be well to try 

 it, sparingly at first, either cut into shces, salted, and 

 fried, or stewed with beef broth, for the flesh of the 

 large puffballs is delicious in its flavor, and none of 

 them are known to be poisonous. Our large species of 

 the neighborhood of San Francisco are much appreciated 

 by the epicures. 



Very little is known as yet of the extent of the Sierran 

 country inhabited by this puffball, and it is desirable that 

 much more information should be obtained. Dr. Hark- 

 ness, as indicated above, does not give any information as 

 to the exact locality whence he received his specimens, but 

 contents himself with saying that the species "is found 

 only at considerable elevations, 6,000 to 8,000 feet, in the 

 Sierra Nevadas." Of the several specimens preserved 

 in his collections at the California Academy of Sciences 

 in San Francisco, only one has the locality marked. That 

 one came from Summit, in Placer County, whence a speci- 

 men, collected by Mrs. Charles H. Shinn, is among the 

 plants of the herbarium of the University of California. 

 We have also in this herbarium specimens gathered at 

 Sierra Valley and between that place and Truckee, col- 

 lected by Mr. Fowler. W. C. Blasdale has collected 

 the Sierran puffball in the neighborhood of Lake Tahoe, 

 and I have specimens taken by myself from a considerable 

 number of fine large plants seen in the neighborhood 

 of Emerald Bay on Lake Tahoe. The photograph repre- 

 sents some of these specimens. From farther south, we 

 have a specimen collected at Tamarack Flat, on the Big 

 Oak Flat road into the Yosemite Valley, by H. N. Bag- 

 ley ; and the late Professor J. J. B. Argenti described to 



