Catastoma circumscissum.
Showing method of growth, breaking away and turning over. Section of same showing origin of the threads of the capillitium. (After Morgan.)
C. circumscis´sum B. and C. (Plate [CLXXVIII].) Peridium subglobose, more or less depressed and often quite irregular; cortex thickish, fragile, usually rough and uneven from the adhering soil, after maturity torn away, leaving the lower two-thirds or more in the ground; inner peridium depressed-globose, subcoriaceous, rather thin, pallid, becoming gray, minutely furfuraceous, with a small regular basal mouth. Mass of spores and capillitium soft, compact, then friable, olivaceous, changing to pale brown; the pieces of the threads short, unequal in length, flexuous, hyaline, 3–4µ in thickness. Spores globose, minutely warted, 4–5µ in diameter, often with a minute pedicel.
Growing in heavy clay soil in old lanes and pastures, especially along the hard-trodden paths.
Maine, Blake; Ohio, Morgan; Kansas, Kellerman; Nebraska, Webber.
Inner peridium ½-¾ in. in diameter.
This is Bovista circumscissa B. and C., of Berkeley’s Notices of North America Fungi. It grows in great abundance with us some seasons, right in the hard-trodden barn-yard, and along the lane to the cattle pasture. Arachnion album Schw. usually keeps it company. Morgan.
I have not seen this acrobatic species. Study of its unique habit suggests the query: Is not the turning over of its spore-filled portion a substitute for an original but lost power of growing right side up?