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.
Figure 455.—Calvatia gigantia. One-fifth natural size, showing how they grow in the grass.
Calvatia lilacina. Berk.
Lilac Puffball. Edible.
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 a cup-shaped base with a ragged margin. Spores globose, rough, purple-brown, 5–6.5 broad. Peck, 48th Rep. N. Y. State Bot.