All our botanical friends will be interested in the following paper on the curious fungi commonly called "puff-balls"; but I must emphasize the words of caution given by Professor Trelease and warn you not to eat any puff-balls whatever, until you have been taught to distinguish the good from the poisonous, by a competent botanist, with the actual specimens in his hand. So long as you have the slightest doubt, remember the old test—"Eat one,—then if you live, it was an edible mushroom; if you die, it was a poisonous fungus!" Here is what Professor Trelease says:
I have been asked several times by the boys of the Agassiz Association to go with them on little collecting excursions, and I have always found them much interested in toadstools, and other fungi. From what I have seen on these and similar excursions, I have been led to think that if given a little idea about some of these plants a good many people would be glad to observe them more closely.
One group of fungi in particular—the puff-balls—has a great deal of interest for me. It is a very difficult group to study, and if the sharp-eyed boys of the Agassiz Chapters all over the country will be on the lookout for puff-balls this summer and fall, they can be of assistance in some work that there is much need of doing with these plants.
Every boy who lives in the country must have seen the giant puff-ball (Lycoperdon bovista) that grows in pastures, looking like a great white egg, sometimes nearly two feet high, set up on its small end. It is not easy to see where these curious growths come from, for they sometimes appear as large as one's fist, or larger, in the morning, in places where there was nothing of the sort the night before. Then they often grow for several days, and finally turn brown and break up into a dusty mass that at last blows away like smoke, leaving nothing but a dried, torn remnant behind.
When one of these large puff-balls is seen, scrape the dirt away carefully about it, and the secret of its appearance will be discovered; for a mass of fine white threads spread away from it in every direction. This spawn takes the place of the roots of a tree, absorbing food from the decaying leaf mold, or whatever there may be of the same nature in the ground. All of its food is obtained in this way; so that the delicate spawn-threads may spend a long time in feeding and storing up food before they give any evidence of their existence. But at last a puff-ball begins to grow; at first, very small, then larger, but never very large, until a rain may give it the opportunity to break through the sod, and then, swelling up rather than growing, it suddenly makes its appearance.
While they are young, firm, and pure white, when cut open, these large puff-balls are very good eating, sliced, seasoned well, and fried in butter, and especially if dipped in egg and cracker crumbs. But I must caution my readers to leave other fungi alone, even if they think the specimens they find are mushrooms, for some of the fungi that look a good deal like mushrooms are extremely poisonous. Even a puff-ball soon loses its value for food, and should never be eaten after it becomes the least discolored, or offensive in smell. When this change occurs, it seems as if the plant was rapidly going to decay; but this is not the case,—it is simply ripening. For a puff-ball is nothing more nor less than the fruit of the underground mycelium, or spawn; and the dusty mass that it dries into is composed of myriads of spores, which take the place of the seeds of flowering plants. How many puff-balls there would be if every one of these microscopic spores developed! In a puff-ball sixteen inches in diameter, if they occupy only one-third of the space, there are no less than 300,000,000,000,000,000 spores,—an inconceivable number. I do not know why it is, but these spores do not germinate readily, and very few of them produce other plants. Perhaps it is quite as well, as, if they all grew, there would be room for no other kind of vegetation.
1. FLEECY WHITE PUFF-BALL. 2. BEECH EARTH STAR. 3.LEAD-COLORED PUFF-BALL. 4. STUDDED PUFF-BALL. 5. PEAR-SHAPED PUFF-BALL.
Another very good edible puff-ball is the little lead-colored species (Bovista plumbea), about as large as a marble, that is very common in hilly pastures. When it is young and white, it is even more delicious than the large species. With these I think I should let my bill-of-fare rest.
A few other common puff-balls are the exquisite earth-stars (Geaster), that are commonest in sandy places and under evergreens; the studded puff-ball (Lycoperdon gemmatum), very abundant on the ground in woods; the fleecy white puff-ball (L. Wrightii) that grows along paths in meadows; and the pear-shaped puff-ball (L. pyriforme), found everywhere on old logs, in tufts that are united by firm white cords.