inner peridium. The light colored peridium probably would not have 
attracted our attention for the inner peridia of many Geasters 
bleach out on exposure to the weather. But the color of spores does 
not bleach. We can offer no explanation of it other than to advance the 
theory that they tend toward albino forms. They grew with ordinary 
forms of Geaster triplex with the usual reddish peridium and sooty 
spores. They are the first “albinos” we have ever noticed in the puff¬ 
ball world. 
305—CALVATIA SCULPTUM. 
Several years ago while calling on the late Dr. Harkness at the 
rooms of the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, I was 
shown a specimen of the remarkable plant he described as “Tycoperdon 
sculptum.” 
It was so strongly marked and 
such a fine species that I have always 
wanted to own a specimen. At last 
my desire has been gratified, through 
the kindness of Prof. Walter C. Bias- 
dale, who sent me a small but very 
fine example (fig. 81). It reached me 
during my stay at Paris, and I was 
pleased to show it to my friends 
Patouillard and Hariot. I think they 
were both desirous of it, but of course 
I could not spare it. 
This plant is covered with large 
pyramidal warts known to no other 
“puff-ball.” It was described as a 
Tycoperdon but its generic position is 
not assured. It seems to me to more 
< closely approximate Calvatia in modern 
classification but will probably be made 
in time the type of a separate genus.* 
The method of dehiscence is I think 
not surely known. Prof. Blasdale 
writes me:—“I do not recollect the 
manner of dehiscence but am sure that the peridium breaks into pieces 
and the spines peel off as it dries.” 
There is at Kew .some ripe gleba sent by Dr. Harkness. It is 
unusually bright yellow in color. The small, smooth spores and thick, 
deeply colored capillitium threads are very similar to those of Calvatia 
caelata. The plant does not grow near the coast, we understand, but 
is only found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Prof. Blasdale col¬ 
lected it at Take Tahoe. We hope some one who is fortunate enough 
to live in these mountains will collect it more abundantly for us. The 
specimen received is a small one. The one in the Museum in San 
Francisco is five or six inches in diameter. 
* This is a hint to some one ambitious of the “ honor ” of proposing new genera. The genus 
“ Areolaria,” to which it has been suggested this plant belongs, is a bad mixture made up in Sac- 
cardo of a Calvatia a Phellorina and a Scleroderma. 
203 
