Figure 462.—Calvatia elata.
Elata means tall; so called from its long stem.
The peridium is round, often slightly depressed above, plicate below, where it is abruptly contracted into a long stem-like base. The base is slender, round, and frequently pitted; mycelium rather plentiful, fibrous and thread-like. When in good condition it is a rich cream color. The cortex consists of a coat of minute persistent granules or spinules. The inner peridium is white or cream-colored, becoming brown or olivaceous, quite thin and fragile, the upper part at maturity breaking up and falling away. The subgleba occupies the stem. The mass of spores and capillitium is usually brown or greenish-brown. The threads are very long, branched, branches slender. Spores round, even, sometimes slightly warted, 4–5µ, with a slight pedicel.
The plant grows on low mossy grounds among bushes, especially where it is inclined to be swampy. The plant in Figure 462 was found in a sphagnum swamp near Akron and was photographed by Prof. G. D. Smith. I am inclined to think it the same as Calvatia saccata, Fr.
Lycoperdon. Tourn.
Mycelium fibrous, rooting from the base. Peridium small, globose, obovoid or turbinate, with a more or less thickened base; cortex a subpersistent coat of soft spines, scales, warts or granules; inner peridium thin, membranaceous, becoming papyraceous, dehiscent by a regular apical mouth. Morgan.
This genus includes puffballs with apical openings and is divided into two series, a purple-spored and an olive-spored series. The microscope shows that the gleba is composed of a great number of spores mixed with simple or branched threads. There are two sets of threads; one set arises from the peridial wall and the other from the subgleba or columella.
PURPLE-SPORED SERIES.