EARTH-STARS 
7 i 
the ball, and they will repeat this as often as the conditions 
become moist or dry; hence they are called ‘ hygro- 
metricus,’ and frequently by children £ poor man’s weather¬ 
glass.’ Miss Marshall states that in the closed condition 
they are carried along by the wind, and applies to them 
the name of ‘ fair-weather travellers.’ Plants persist 
often during win., and one observing them in the spr. 
expanding under the influence of moisture may take 
them for growing plants. They become ‘ weather-worn,’ 
the inner surface of the exoperidium cracked in numerous 
area, the surface of the inner peridium frayed and fibrillose.”* 
A cosmopolitan species frequenting sandy pine woods, not 
so common in England as on the continent of Europe. 
TULOSTOMA 
(Gr. tulos, cartilage; stoma , mouth—from the structure of the 
mouth of the peridium) 
T. maminosum (mamma, a breast—from the breast-like 
peridium), “Little Wall-loving Puff-ball.” Plate II. 2. 
Per. J-f in. diam., globose, minutely umbonate at first, at 
maturity rupturing at the umbo to allow of the escape of 
the spores. S. 1-2^ in., slender, equal, ragged at the 
base with the remains of the volva, generally clad with 
minute scales. W. G. Smith says there are two well-marked 
forms—brown with a stout stem, and yellowish-white with a 
slender stem—but intermediate ones occur. Amongst moss 
on old dry walls and banks in ant. aud win., chiefly in the 
eastern counties. 
QUELETIA 
(After Dr. Lucien Quelet) 
Q. mirabilis (mirabilis, wonderful—from its peculiar shape). 
Per. 2J in., thin, even, fragile, flaking away when adult, 
whitish at first, then greyish. S. about 5 in. long, nearly 2 in. 
* " The Geastrae,” by C. G. Lloyd, 1902, pp. 9, 10. 
