EARTH-BALLS 
61 
granulatus. The smell of S. vulgave is strong and disagree¬ 
able. It is rejected by pigs when searching for truffles. 
It is occasionally the host of Boletus parasiticus (see 
Plate XI.), and is sometimes attacked by a mould, 
Hypomyces luteo-virens. 
S. verrucosum ( verrucosus , full of warts—from the warted 
peridium), “Stemmed Earth-ball.” Plate XVIII. 3. 
May be easily distinguished from the preceding by 
the thin peridium, the long (usually), thick, lacunose stem, 
and the umber spore mass without a purple tinge. It is 
sometimes almost sessile, and might be easily mistaken for 
S. vulgare. The specific name is not a good one: it is not 
nearly so “warty” as the preceding species. Widely 
distributed, but never so frequently met with as 5 . vulgare. 
Of the two remaining British species, which are by no 
means common, 5 . geaster may be at once recognised by 
the splitting of the mature peridium into stellate lobes, and 
5 . bovista by the yellow trama. 
POLYSACCUM 
(Gr. polus, many; saccos, a bag—from the numerous small 
cells within the peridium) 
P. pisocarpium ( pisuni , a pea; carpelhm ) a fruit—from the 
pea-like peridiola). Plate II. 4. 
Per. 2-3 in., globose, indistinctly nodular, olive with a 
brown tinge, passing somewhat abruptly downwards into a 
stout stem about 1 in. long. Peridiola irregularly ovoid at 
first, irregularly polygonal at maturity. It has not been 
observed in Britain since Sowerby’s time, who found one 
specimen amongst sand at Highgate in May. 
Lloyd remarks : “ The genus is close to Scleroderma, some 
specimens having the gleba cell walls so fragile that the 
plants can be taken for Scleroderma. There exists in the 
tissue of the peridium and walls of the peridioles a yellow 
