I have tested fine specimens of the giant puff-ball gathered in the public parks of Washington, D. C., finding it delicious eating when fried in batter.
Figs. 7 and 8.—Lycoperdon cyathiforme Bose. "Cup-shaped Puff-Ball."
Synonyms—L. fragile Vitt. L. albopurpureum Frost.
Plant nearly globose, with a short, thick, stem-like base, color varying, cinereous, brown, tinged with violet.
Rind or peridium smooth, or minutely floccose, scaly in the mature plant, cracking into somewhat angular areas, the upper portion finally falling away in fragments, leaving a wide cup-shaped base, with irregular margin, which remains long after the dispersion of the spores and capillitium. This basal portion is often tinged with the purplish hue of the spores. Spores rough, purplish-brown. Capillitium same color as the spores.
Lycoperdon cyathiforme is a more common species than L. giganteum, and is deemed quite equal to the latter in flavor. The plants are of good size, being from 4 to 10 inches in diameter.
They are frequently found in open fields and grassy places after electric storms. When sliced and fried in egg batter, they taste much like the giganteum or giant puff-ball.
A puff-ball which is not inferior to either of the two last-named species, though not as large, and perhaps not as abundant as either, is the Lycoperdon saccatum of Fries, sometimes called the "Long-stemmed puff-ball," because of its elongated stem.
The plants of this species are attractive in appearance, usually hemispherical, or lentiform in shape, with cylindrical stem-like base. The peridium is thin and delicate, breaking into fragments; creamy white in the young stage, and clothed with delicate warts, so minute as to give the surface a soft mealy appearance, the under surface somewhat plicate. Capillitium sub-persistent and dense. Both spores and capillitium brown.