The peridium is firm, single, generally thick, usually bursting irregularly, and exposing the gleba, which is of uniform texture and consistency. There is no capillitium, but yellow flocci are found interspersed with the spores. The spores are globose, rough, usually mixed with the hyphae tissue.

_Scleroderma aurantium. Pers._

THE COMMON SCLERODERMA. EDIBLE.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Plate LXIV. Figure 474.--Scleroderma aurantium.

Natural size, showing a section of a young specimen.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 475.--Scleroderma aurantium.]

Aurantium means colored like an orange. This is usually called S.

vulgare. The peridium is rough, warty, depressed, globose, corky and hard, yellowish, opening by irregular fissures to scatter the spores; inner ma.s.s bluish-black, spores dingy. The plant remains solid until it is quite old. It is sessile, with a rooting base which is never sterile.

I have followed Mr. Lloyd's cla.s.sification in separating the species, calling the rough-surfaced one S. aurantium, and the smooth-surfaced S.

cepa.

In labeling it edible I wish only to indicate that it is not poisonous, as it is generally thought to be; however, it cannot be claimed as a very good article of food.

It has a wide distribution over the states. The plants in Figure 475 were found on Cemetery Hill, Chillicothe, and photographed by Dr.

Kellerman. Found from August to November.

_Scleroderma tenerum. Berk._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Figure 476.--Scleroderma tenerum.]

This species is often regarded as a small form of S. verrucosum, but it always seemed strange to me that this rather smooth plant should be called "verrucosum" when its frequently near neighbor, S. aurantium, is very verrucose.

S. tenerum is a very widely distributed species in the United States, somewhat constant as to form and quite frequent in occurrence. Mr.

Lloyd, in his Mycological Notes, gives a very clear photograph of a plant that is quite local in this country and which he thinks should be called S. verrucosum of Europe.

The plant differs very widely from the one we find so commonly which by many authors has been called S. verrucosum. Some have even called it Scleroderma bovista.

The plant is nearly sessile, somewhat irregular, peridium thin, soft, yellowish, densely marked with small scales, dehiscence irregular, flocci yellow and spores dingy olive.

The species may be known by the thin and comparatively smooth peridium and yellow flocci. It is quite common in the United States, while the typical plant, S. verrucosum, is confined to a few localities along the Atlantic coast.

_Scleroderma Cepa. Pers._

Cepa meaning an onion; having very much the appearance of an onion.

The peridium is thick, smooth, reddish-yellow to reddish-brown, opening by an irregular mouth. The plant is sessile and quite strongly rooted with fine rootlets. Its habitat, with us, is along the banks of small brooks in the woods. It has been cla.s.sed heretofore as S. vulgare, smooth variety. I sent some to Prof. Peck, who quite agrees that they should be separated from S. vulgare. Found from August to November.

_Scleroderma geaster. Fr._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Plate LXV. Figure 477.--Scleroderma geaster.]

Geaster, so called because it has a star-like opening somewhat similar to the genus Geaster.

Peridium subglobose, thick, with a very short stem, or almost--sometimes entirely--sessile; hard, rough, splitting into irregular stellate limbs; frequently well buried in the ground. Inner ma.s.s dark-brown or blackish, sometimes with rather a purplish tinge. Some grow quite large with the peridium very thick. My attention was first attracted by some of the peridium sh.e.l.ls upon the ground on Cemetery Hill. The plant is quite abundant there from September to December.

_Catastoma. Morgan._

This is a small puffball-like plant, growing just beneath the ground and attached to its bed by very small threads which issue from every part of the cortex, which is quite thick. Breaking away at maturity in a circ.u.mscissile manner, the lower part is held fast to the ground, while the upper part remains attached to the inner peridium as a kind of cup.

The inner peridium, with the top part of the outer peridium attached, becomes loose and tumbles over the ground, the mouth being in the base of the plant as it grew.

_Catastoma circ.u.mscissum. B. & C._

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by C. G. Lloyd._

Figure 478.--Catastoma circ.u.mscissum.]

Circ.u.mscissum means divided into halves.

The peridium is usually round, more or less depressed, commonly rough because of the soil attached; the larger part of the plant remaining in the soil as a cup; the upper part with the inner peridium, depressed-globose, thin, pallid, becoming gray, with branny scales, with a small basal mouth. A thin spongy layer will frequently be seen between the outer and inner peridium. The ma.s.s of the spores is olivaceous, changing to pale-brown. The spores are round, minutely warted, 4-5. in diameter, often with very short pedicels.

The plants are usually found in pastures along paths. I have seen them in several parts of Ohio. They are found from Maine to the western mountains. This is called Bovista circ.u.mscissa by Berkeley.

There is a species of a western range called C. subterraneum. This differs mainly in having larger spores. It seems to be confined to the middle west. However, it does not grow under the ground, as its name would suggest.

There is also another species called C. pedicellatum. This species seems to be confined to the southern states and differs mainly in the spores having marked pedicels and closely warted.

_Podaxineae._

This tribe is characterized by having a stalk continuous with the apex of the peridium, forming an axis. Some of the plants are short stalked, some long stalked. The tribe forms a natural connecting link between the Gastromycetes and the Agarics. Thus: Podaxon is a true Gastromycetes, with capillitia mixed with spores; Caulogossum, with its permanent gleba chambers, is close to the Hymenogasters; Secotium is only a step from Caulogossum, the tramal plates being more sinuate-lamellate; and Montagnites, which is usually placed with the Agarics, is only a Gyrophragmium with the plates truly lamellate.

KEY TO THE GENERA.

Gleba with irregular, persistent chambers-- Peridium, elongated club-shaped Cauloglossum.

Peridium, round or conical, and dehiscing by breaking away at the base Secotium.

Gleba with sinuate-lamellate plates Gyrophragmium.

Walls of gleba chambers not persistent Podaxon.

--_Lloyd._