cylindrical,
tapering gradually to the apex, whitish or pinkish below, pileus bright
red.

The volva is oblong-ovoid, pinkish, segments two or three. The spores
are elliptical-oblong. _Morgan._

The odor of this plant is not as strong as in some of the Phalloids. The
eggs of Phallus and Mutinus are said to be very good when fried
properly, but my recollection of the odor of the plant has been too
vivid for me to try them. It is usually found in mixed woods, but
sometimes in richly cultivated fields. I have found them frequently
about Chillicothe six to seven inches high. In Figure 452 on the right
is shown an egg and above it is a section of an egg containing the
embryonic plant. This plant is called by Prof. Morgan Mutinus bovinus.
After seeing this picture the collector will not fail to recognize it.
It is one of the curious growths in nature. Found in July and August.

CHAPTER XV.

LYCOPERDACEAE--PUFF-BALLS.

This family includes all fungi which have their spores in closed
chambers until maturity. The chambers are called the gleba and this is
surrounded by the peridium or rind, which in different puffballs
exhibits various characteristic ways of opening to let the spores
escape. The peridium is composed of two distinct layers, one called the
cortex, the other the peridium proper. The plant is generally sessile,
sometimes more or less stemmed, at maturity filled with a dusty mass of
spores and thread.

It affords many of our most delicious fungus food products. The
following genera are considered here:

I. Calvatia--The large puffball.
II. Lycoperdon--The small puffball.
III. Bovista--The tumbling puffball.
IV. Geaster--Earth Star.
V. Scleroderma--The hard puffball.

_Calvatia. Fr._

This genus represents the largest sized puffballs. They have a thick
cord-like mycelium rooting from the base. The peridium is very large,
breaking away in fragments when ripe and exposing the gleba. The cortex
is thin, adherent, often soft and smooth like kid leather, sometimes
covered with minute squamules; the inner peridium is thin and fragile,
at maturity cracking into areas. The capillitium is a net-work of fine
threads through the tissues of spore-bearing portion; tissue, snow white
at first, turning greenish-yellow, then brown; the mass of spores and
the dense net-work of threads (capillitium) attached to the peridium and
to the subgleba or sterile base which is cellulose; limited and conca