ve
above. Spores small, round, usually sessile.

_Calvatia gigantea. Batsch._

THE GIANT PUFFBALL. EDIBLE.

[Illustration: Plate LVII. Figure 454.--Calvatia gigantea.]

This species grows to an immense size (often twenty inches in diameter);
round or obovoid, with a thick mycelial cord rooting it to the ground,
sessile, cortex white and glossy, sometimes slightly roughened by minute
floccose warts, becoming yellowish or brown. The inner peridium is
thin and fragile, after maturity breaking up into fragments, apparently
without any subgleba; capillitium and spores yellowish-green to
dingy-olive. The spores are round, sometimes minutely warted.

Not common about Chillicothe, but in the northwestern part of the state
they are very plentiful in their season, and very large. Standing in Mr.
Joseph's wood-pasture, east of Bowling Green, I have counted fifteen
giant puffballs whose diameters would average ten inches, and whose
cortex was as white and glossy as a new kid glove. A friend of mine,
living in Bowling Green, and driving home from Deshler, saw in a
wood-pasture twenty-five of these giant puffballs. Being impressed with
the sight and having some grain sacks in his wagon he filled them and
brought them home. He at once telephoned for me to come to his house, as
the mountain was too big to take to Mohammed. He was surprised to learn
that he had found that proverbial calf which is all sweet-breads. That
evening we supplied twenty-five families with slices of these puffballs.

They can be kept for two or three days on ice. The photograph, taken by
Prof. Shaffner of Ohio State University, will show how they look growing
in the grass. They seem to delight to nestle in the tall bluegrass. This
species has been classed heretofore as Lycoperdon giganteum. Found from
August to October.

[Illustration: Figure 455.--Calvatia gigantia. One-fifth natural size,
showing how they grow in the grass.]

_Calvatia lilacina. Berk._

LILAC PUFFBALL. EDIBLE.

[Illustration: Plate LVIII. Figure 456.--Calvatia lilacina.

Natural size in a growing state.]

The peridium is three to six inches in diameter; globose or depressed
globose; smooth or minutely floccose or scaly; whitish, cinereous-brown
or pinkish-brown, often cracking into areas in the upper part; commonly
with a short, thick, stemless base; capillitium and spores purple-brown,
these and the upper part of the peridium falling away and disappearing
when old, leaving