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BO V IST A g i g a n t e a .
Great double-coated Puff-ball
C la s s a n d O r d e r CEYPTOGAMIA FUNGI, iin™ .— N a t . O r d . GASTROMYCI,
Link.
GEN ERIC CHARACTER.
Peridium duplex; exterius inmqualiter ruptum secedens; interius membrana-
ceum irregulariter rumpens. Sporidia pedicellata floccis injixa.
Peridium double; outer one breaking unequally and falling off; inner one
membranaceous, bursting irregularly. Sporidia attached to the flocci
by minute pedicels.
S P E C IF IC CHARACTER.
B o v i s t a gigantea; magna, globosa, albida, peridio externo glabro.
B. large, globose, white, outer peridium glabrous.
B o v i s t a g ig a n te a , Nees, Syst. p . 34. t. 11. f. \2 i.~M a r t. Fl. Erlang, p . 384.
Grev. FL Edin. p . 45 8 .
L y c o p e r d o n g lg a n te um , Batsch, Blench. Fung. p . 2 3 7 . t. 3g. f. l6 3 .~P e r s;
Syn. Fung. p . 140.— H e Cand. Fl. Franç. v. 2. p . 264— Ejusd. Syn. p . 55.
— Hook. Fl. Scot. Pt. 2. p. 11.
L y c o p e r d o n Proteus, Smv. Fung. t. 33 2 . the two upper figures.
L y c o p e r d o n Proteus, var. 1. With. Bot. Arr. v. 4 . p . 4 5 2 Purt. Midi. Fl.
V. 3. p . 4 7 7 . in part.
L y c o p e r d o n Bovista, Bull. Champ, p . 154. t. 447— Lightf. Fl. Scot. p . 1066.
var. glabrum.
L y c o p e r d o n m a x im um , Schoeff. Fung. v . 4. p . 130. t. I 91.
H a b . Grassy shady places, in autumn, not very common.
Plant very large, five inches to one or even two feet in diameter, globose.
Outer peridium at first beautifully white, but as it verges towards matu-
rity, yellowish; thickish, glabrous, at length peeling off in large irregular
flakes. Inner peridium thin, membranaceous, olivaceous, bursting
irregularly. The interior is composed in the young state of a homogeneous
white substance, afterwards becoming spongy and greenish, and
at last a prodigious quantity of minute, globose sporidia are developed,
of a brownish colour, furnished with pedicels, by which they are attached
to numerous intermingled filaments.