i f
SCLERODERMA C e p a .
Onion-like false Puff-ball.
C la s s a n d O h d e h CRYPTOGAMIA FUNGI, i i w i— N a t . O r d . GASTROMYCI,
LinJc. Grev.
GEN ERIC CHARACTER.
Plantx globosx sxpe stipitatx. Peridium simplex, durum, epidermide verrucosa.
Sphxrulx in glomerulos coacervatx, Jioccis inspersx.
Globose plants, often furnished with a stem. Peridium simple, hard, with
a warty epidermis. Sporules collected into little roundish masses, and
intermixed with small woolly filaments.
S PE C IF IC CHARACTER.
Scleroderma Cepa; subrotundum, depressum, epidermide nunc Ixviuscula, nunc
reticulato-verrucosa vel muricala, flavo-fusca, stipite nullo sed basi mamil-
loso, subarhizo.
S. roundish, depressed, the epidermis either nearly smooth, or reticulated by
cracking into warts, or muricated, yellowish-brown; stipes none, but the
base mammillose, root only a few fibres.
Scleroderma Cepa, Pers. Syn. Fung. p. 155— Schwein. Fung. Carol. Sup.
No. .348.— Grev. FI. Edin. ined.
Scleroderma cepoides, Gray’s Nat. An; v. 1. p. 582.
T uber solidum. With. Bot. Arr. ed. 6. v. 4. p. 443.
L y c o p e r d o n ciepie-facie, Vaill. Bot. Par. p. 123. t. 16. f. 5, 6.Jide Pers.
H a b . Woods and bushy places, in the autumn, not unfrequent. Woods at
Fochabers. At Kinordy, the property of Charles L yell, Fsq. Aber-
corn woods at Duddingston, near Fdinburgh.—In Fngland, it has, I believe,
only been found by W ith e r in g at Fdgebaston, near Birmingham.
Plant mostly gregarious, of a roundish, but somewhat depressed form, one
and a half to two inches in diameter, very solid and firm, never bursting
at the apex or elsewhere. Peridium single (unless the epidermis be considered
as a distinct covering), thick, of a white substance within, but
yellowish or brownish without, varying much in the degree of wartiness,
which is sometimes scarcely perceptible, but at others the surface is quite
muricated with projecting processes. Beneath, the plant is generally
slightly plicate, and has an obtuse production, but nothing like a stipes
in the specimens I have seen. Root a few fibres, sometimes scarcely any.
Interior of the plant whitish when young, but at length deep blue-black,
and of a very dense substance. Sporules globose, collected in small gra