s Ii i|
II
ISflli!
AN HISTORY OF FUNGUSSES. 117
LYCOPERDON fubrotundum, lacerato dehifcens. Sp. PI. CXLV
1656. Scbcef. Fung. t. 184, 185, >86, 187, 189, 190, u^iju
191, 292, 293, 294, 295. Marjtglii Miß. Fung. Carr.
ßg. 1, 2. Mag. monßrofa. Mich. Gen. t. gy, 98. Vaill.
• Paris, t. 16, ßg. 4. t. 12, fig. 15, 16. Relhan, Flor. 469,
No. 979. Lightfoot, Scot. 1067, 2. Hudßn Angl. 642,4.
V A R I A B L E PUFF-BALL.
\T- A B. CXVII. ,
<~pHE varieties of this plant in fize, figure, colour, and furface,
are almoft. endlefs. In the annexed plate, I have
fele&ed fuch fubjects, as I thought moil likely to give an idea
of the plant sin all" its ftates. The eight figures before us,
being mixed and blended together as they are in Nature, will
exhibit almoft endlefs forms; but to give particular defcriptions
of each is not neceffary.
SCHJKFFER, in his| Hiftory of FunguJ'es, has beftowed
elpven large plates on this fpecies, and has copied many of its
varieties in near fifty elegant figures. In the Floras of REL-
, ' H A N , HUD, SON, LIGHTFOOT, &c. the Synonyma of former
authors are, with much care, applied to thofo varieties, which
they refpedtively were meant to difcriminate.
The beft fpecific character of diftinclion in the fpecies, is,
its being furrounded with three feparate coverings ; the firft. of
thefe is infeparably connefted with the pith or fubftance of the
plant ; the fecond is a tqugh, leathery, imooth coat; the third
or outermoft, a foft epidermis, eafily rubbed off; and it is in
thefe epidermi only, -that thofe varieties of figures, we obierve
on the furface of the plants, have their exiftence.
This character, however, muft be attended to, while the
plants are growing and in aftate of vigour; for afterwards the
epidermis, with its figures, falls off, vaniihes, and leaves the
plant quite fmooth in its laft ftages. H