_Lycoperdaceæ_
[Illustration: SECTION OF PUFF-BALL--EARLIER AND LATER STAGES]
A detailed discrimination of the Puff-balls is hardly necessary here,
and I will therefore omit it. While I am not inclined to go so far
as to contend, as was the quaint habit of old Dr. Culpeper, in his
_Herbal_, in which he was wont similarly to elude description of an
herb, affirming that "he were a fool indeed who does not know this
plant"--or words of similar import--it is perfectly safe to say that
if there is one fungus more than another with which the populace is
_specifically_ familiar it is the Puff-ball.
[Sidenote: =Spore-cloud dissemination=]
In these fungi, of which there are many species, the spores are
incased within the white or dingy peridium or more or less globular
case--_gasteromyceteæ_, from _gaster_, a stomach. The interior spore
substance is at first white and firm in structure, at length peppered
with gray, both conditions being indicated in accompanying cut, and
ultimately black or brown, after which the outer case becomes dry
and papery, and soon bursts at the summit, liberating its clouds
of spores with the slightest zephyr, or, later, becoming dislodged
from its slender anchorage to the soil, is whisked before the breeze
enveloped in its spore-smoke. Fries, the eminent fungologist, has
reckoned the number of these spores in a single Puff-ball at ten
millions--presumably a conservative estimate.
But it will surprise most people to know that the plebeian Puff-ball of
our pastures is good for something besides the kick of the small boy.
There are a number of species of the Puff-ball, and none of them is
known to be poisonous.
[Sidenote: =Various species=]
I have indicated an arbitrary group in Plate 34 ranging in shape and
size from the small white globular variety of an inch in diameter, _L.
saccatum_, and the pear-shaped _L. gemmatum_, to the giant pasture
species, which may frequently attain the dimensions of a football or a
bushel basket. In its larger dimensions it is more spreading in shape,
being somewhat wider than high. _All the Puff-balls are edible_ if
gathered at the _white stage--i.e._, white pulp; those of yellow or
darker fracture being excluded, as the fungus in this later stage is
not considered fit for food.
[Illustration: _A group of Puff-balls_]
_PLATE XXXIV_