l y e 
l y e 
ih woman’s clothes, to detain him from the Trojan war, 
where (he knew he mull: unavoidably periffi. Lycomedes 
has rendered himfelf famous for his treachery toThefeus, 
who had implored his protection when driven from his 
throne of Athens by the ufurper Mneftheus. Lycomedes, 
ns it is reported, either envious of the name of his illuf- 
trious gueft, or bribed by the emiffaries of Mneftheus, led 
Thefeus to an elevated place, on pretence of fhowing him 
the extent of his dominions, and perfidioufly threw him 
down a precipice, where he was killed. Pint . in The/. 
LYCOM'ING, a county in the north part of Pennfyl- 
•vania, 150 miles long, and 86 broad, with 54.14- inhabi¬ 
tants. 
LYCOM'ING, a town of Pennfylvania: 150 miles 
north of Philadelphia. 
LYCOMING CREE'K, a river of Pennfylvania, which 
runs into the Sufquehanna in lat.4.1.10. N. Ion. 77. 9. W. 
LY'CON, a philofopher of Troas, in the age of Arif- 
totle. He was greatly efteemed by Eumenes, Antiochus, 
&c. He died in the 74th year of his age. Ding. in vit. 
LYCO'NE, a city of Thrace.—A mountain of Argolis. 
Pavf. 
LYCOPERDAS'TRUM, f. in botany. See Lyco- 
PERDON. 
LYCOPERDOPDES. See Lycoperdon. 
LYCOPER'DON, 'J'. [fo called by Tournefort, from 
Twxo?, a wolf, and to explode backwards ; this au¬ 
thor having certainly improved the old foolifh name, Cre¬ 
pitus lupi, by making it iefs generally intelligible. The 
French call the fungus to which it is applied vejfe-loup, 
or wolf-bladder; the Englifh, puff-ball \ and the Germans, 
bojijl ; from which lalt Dillenius contrived the barbarous 
name boviJla.'\ In botany, a genus of the clafs cryptoga- 
mia, order fungi, and natural order of fungi, or mulh- 
rooms. Generic eflential charaders—Fungus roundilh, 
opening irregularly at the top, full of powder-like impal¬ 
pable feeds intermixed with wool-like filaments. 
Species. Eleven fpecies are enumerated in Murray’s 
edition of Syftema Vegetabilium. Dr. Withering has 
twenty-five Britiffi fpecies in the third edition of his Ar¬ 
rangement. And fome of Linnteus’s fpecies are difpofed 
of under other genera. Thus the moft interefting of the 
number, L. tuber, with the other folid Lycoperdons, is fe- 
parated, and made a dilfinCl genus, under its old name of 
Tuber. Perfoon has fourteen Fpecies, excluding the 
Harry puff-balls, which he places under a diftindt genus, 
Geastrum, ; and fome others under the genera Tuber, 
Scleroderma, and Bovista. Some of the fpecies are 
caulefcent; i.e. furnilhed with a ftem ; others lie flat 
upon the ground ; others again are parafitical, being found 
on the bark, and even on the leaves, of trees, (as to which, 
fee the Linn/Tranf. vol. v. p. 305.) andalfoon the horns 
of cattle and fheep, and the hoofs of horfes; (Withering.) 
The feed or dull is in fome of the fpecies green, but moltly 
black ; it may vary, however, with the iize and age of the 
fungus. The different fpecies vary in bignefs from the 
flze of a pin’s head to a diameter of fifteen inches. We 
iiiall prefent the defcription of a few fpecies, as examples 
to illuftrate the genus. 
1. Lycoperdon proteus, the large puckfift, or puff-ball: 
roundilh ; white or greyilh, becoming brown; open¬ 
ing with a rent; feeds dark. This is found often as 
big as a man’s heaii, in dry upland paitures, in various 
parts of England and the fouth of Europe. When the 
upper part, and the whole powdery contents, are blown 
away, the fpongy bafe, with a thin torn edge, remains for 
a coniiderabie time. This fpecies is Ihown on the an¬ 
nexed Plate, in its. quiefcent and ripe Itate, at fig. 1. at 
the moment of puffing out its dnft, it affumes the ap¬ 
pearance of fig. 2. This dull, when examined by the 
microfcope, appears to be a multitude of regularly 
figured, though .extremely fmall, bodies. Thefe require 
the moft powerful magnifiers to diltinguiffi them, and 
are found to be little globules of aq orange colour, 
Vol. XIII. No. 947* 
813 
and fomewhat tranfparent; and fo fmall, that the cube of 
the diameter of a hair would be equal to a hundred and 
twenty-five thoufand of them. In others of this mulh- 
room, the globules are evidently feen to be fo many puff¬ 
balls, being of a darker colour, and having each a little 
ftalk or tail ; by means of thefe (talks they penetrate into 
the ground, when ffied from their parent plant. The 
duft of thefe muffirooms is very hurtful to the eyes, and 
we have had inftances of perfons being blinded for a long 
time by it, with violent pain, Iwelling and inflammation ; 
and this is probably owing to the fnarpnefs of thefe air 
moft inconceivably minute ftalks or tails. The fumes of 
this fungus, when burnt, have a narcotic quality, of which 
fome people avail themfelves to take a hive without de- 
ftroying the bees. It is fometimes adminiftered as a ftvp- 
tic; and (Withering adds) it is ufed to carry fuel in from 
a diftance. 
Of this fpecies there is a great number of varieties, dif¬ 
fering in fize and habits. Among thefe may perhaps be 
reckoned the L. quercinum of Albertini. Thefe fungi 
generally meet in great number, and by their accidental 
affociation form large caefpites. They adhere to the fpot 
by long and copious roots on the bark of the oak-tree, in 
the manner reprefented at fig. 3. 
2. Lycoperdon coliforme, or colander puff-ball: wrap¬ 
per many-cleft, expanding; head fpherical, ‘depreffed ; 
fruit-ftalks and mouths numerous. This lycoperdon 
fprings from an egg which lies on a level with, or juft be¬ 
low, the furface of the ground. In this Itate it is nearly 
globular, but (lightly compreffed, of a dirty white, wrin¬ 
kled, fcaly ; with a fliort thick root terminated by a few 
fibres. Cut open it (hows a foft leathery coat, covering 
another which is thicker and much more tough, filled 
with a white curd-like fubftance of a dilagreeable fmell. 
As yet there was no appearance of a head. One found in 
Auguft remained in this ftate to the end of November be¬ 
fore it expanded ; when in a Angle day it was entirely 
raifed out of the ground, and fully expanded. The root 
breaks off, and is left in the earth ; and the inverfion or 
the plant neceflarily raifes it to the furface ; what was be¬ 
fore the upper and the outer part of the wrapper being 
now next the ground. This defcription of the method of 
opening applies to the L. ftellatum and L. recolligens, as 
well as to this fpecies. The head in the larger fpecimens 
is conliderably compreffed, of a browniffi colour, covered 
with a very thin pellicle of a beautiful (liver grey, pecu¬ 
liar to this fpecies. The apertures are very numerous, 
(lightly elevated, and fringed with fine hairs. The pedi¬ 
cles, which do not appear till the thick brittle coat (which 
is common to this and the other ftellated fpecies) dries or 
peels off, are very numerous, woody, thread or ltrap 
ffiaped. In one fpecimen they filled up a circle of half 
an inch diameter; and this had at leaft forty apertures. 
In the fmall fpecimens the head is nearly fpherical, and 
fometimes the pedicles and apertures are not more than 
three or four ; but thefe are hardly to be confidered as va¬ 
rieties. Notwithftanding there teems to be a fort of cor- 
refpondence between the number of pedicles and of aper¬ 
tures, they have no direft communication, nor any cor- 
refponding cells ; the head forming a Angle cavity, as in 
the other fpecies. The apertures are not accidental rup¬ 
tures, but originally formed ; for in an abortive plant, in 
which the dult never ripened, there was obferved a puck¬ 
ering of the lkin in the lame lituation where the'mouths 
ufuaily appear. Found in the lane from Crayford t® 
Bexley Common, Ivent; on fandy banks near Mettinp- 
harn, Suffolk; and Gillingham, and Earffiam, Norfolk; 
from Auguft to November. 
3, Lycoperdon ftellatum, or (tarry puff-ball i wrapper 
many-cleft,expanding ; fegments unequal; head on a ffiort 
Item, fmooth ; mouth tapering upwards, toothed. The 
head of this, when it fi 1 It appears above ground, is nearly 
fpherical, as ffiown at fig. 4. the volva, or (heath, entirely 
covering the papitulum, or head. In a little time the 
9 Q wrapper 
