w
arising from the base fills the centre, while another set of filaments spring
at a right angle from the inner surface of the peridium, and touch the
central mass with their extremities.
Of all the genera of Fungi, there is probably no one equally
limited in extent, that presents so much confusioff in published
figures and descriptions as Lycoperdon,—so many figures
and so many varieties. The subject of the present description
appears to be one of those least liable to great deviation
; and yet it has been placed by some authors among the
incongruous varieties of Lycoperdon Proteus. One of these
varieties, which happens to be before me at the present moment,
the L . Lacunostm (Buih,. Champ, t. 52.), seems really
to be as distinct as L . pyriforme. A pitted stipes cannot be
considered as a trifling character, unless it be an uncertain
one.
B u l l i a i id ’s representation of L . pyrfiorme at t. 32. is
taken from specimens apparently injured, probably by atmospheric
causes. That at t. 435. f. 3. is much superior, but, as P e r -
sooN has j astly remarked, the umbonate summit is not expressed,
—a character I have never seen absent, in any state of the plant.
ScHAiFFER’s figure gives a good idea of specimens growing in
an almost solitary manner, when the stipes becomes shorter,
and the diameter of the peridium greater. The most natural
and the most usual mode of growth is, however, in crowded
tufts, of twelve to fifty together, as represented in the annexed
plate.
Fig. 1. L . pyriforme. Fig. 2, A plant divided; the peridium filled with the
sporules. Fig. 3. The peridium with all the sporules removed, to shew the
woolly mass o f filaments; natural size. Fig. 4. Filaments and sporules,
magnified.