Lycoperdon constellatum.
(After Peck.)
L. constella´tum Fr.—grouped. Peridium subglobose or obovate, sometimes depressed, 10–18 lines broad, echinate with rather long stout crowded brown spines which are either straight curved or stellately united and which at length fall off and leave the surface reticulate with brown lines; capillitium and spores brown or purplish-brown, columella present. Spores rough, 5–6.5µ in diameter.
Ground in dense shades and groves. Oneida, Warne. Rare. Autumn. Peck, 32d Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
(b) Cortex composed of long, slender convergent spines; denuded peridium smooth.
L. hirtum Mart.—hairy. Peridium broadly turbinate, depressed above, contracted below into a short, thick, tapering or pointed base, with a cord-like root. Cortex a dense coat of soft spines, long, slender and convergent above, becoming shorter downward, gray or brownish in color; these finally fall away, leaving the inner peridium with a brown or purplish-brown, smooth, shining surface. Subgleba occupying from one-third to one-half of the peridium; mass of spores and capillitium olivaceous, then brownish-purple; the threads branched, the main stem about as thick as the spores, with slender, tapering branches. Spores globose, distinctly warted, 5–6µ in diameter.
Growing on the ground in woods. Peridium 1–2½ in. in diameter and 1½-2 in. in height. This species in this country heretofore has been included with L. atropurpureum. I have followed Mr. Massee in keeping them separate. This is perhaps L. bicolor W. and C., of the Pacific Coast Catalogue. Morgan.
New York, Peck, 46th Rep.; West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. Ground in woods. August to October. McIlvaine.
It is edible. Good when young and fresh.
L. atropurpur´eum Vitt.—ater, black; purpureus, purple—of the spores. Peridium globose depressed-globose or obovate, 6–30 lines broad, generally narrowed below into a short stem-like base, white cinereous or brownish, mealy-spinulose, hairy-spinulose, echinate or stellately echinate, when denuded smooth and subshining; capillitium and spores finally purplish-brown, columella present. Spores rough, 5–6µ in diameter.