(e) Cortex a smooth, continuous layer, becoming areolate.
Lycoperdon rimulatum.
With magnified spores.
(After Morgan.)
L. rimula´tum Pk.—rimula, a small chink. Peridium depressed—globose or broadly obovoid, plicate underneath with a slender fibrous mycelium. Cortex at first a thin, smooth, continuous fibrillose layer, gray or bluish-gray, sometimes with a purplish tinge; this at length breaks into a network of fine lines or fissures, gradually dries up into minute thin adnate scales, and finally falls away from the smooth grayish or purplish-brown surface of the inner peridium. Subgleba broad, but distinct, plane above, occupying about a fourth part of the peridium; mass of spores and capillitium purplish-gray, then brownish-purple; the threads simple or scarcely branched, variable in thickness, but always thinner than the spores. Spores glovose, distinctly warted, 6–7µ in diameter, often pedicellate.
Growing on the ground in fields and open woods. New York, Peck; South Carolina, Atkinson; Ohio, Morgan; Wisconsin, Trelease. Peridium ¾-1½ in. in diameter, scarcely an inch in height. Morgan.
New Jersey, T.J. Collins; Pennsylvania. Autumn. McIlvaine.
A pretty species, generally in groups. Frequent. It is not common, but occasionally generous patches of it are found. Edible, good.
L. vela´tum Vitt.—velatus, having a velum. Peridium globose or obovoid, with a cord-like root. Cortex white or yellowish, at first a thickish continuous layer, then breaking up into circular or irregular persistent patches with fimbriate margins. Subgleba occupying about a third part of the peridium; mass of spores and capillitium olivaceous, then purplish-brown; the threads branched, the main stem nearly as thick as the spores, the branches long and tapering. Spores globose, distinctly warted, 5–6µ in diameter.
Growing on the ground in woods. South Carolina, Ravenel.