mooth or minutely warted.

Another small puff-ball everywhere common in woods is the _Lycoperdon
pyriforme_, so called because of its pear shape. It grows on very rotten
wood or on decaying logs in woods or groves, or in open places where
there is rotting wood. It is somewhat smaller than the gem-bearing
lycoperdon, is almost sessile, sometimes many crowded very close
together, and especially is it characterized by prominent root-like
white strands of mycelium which are attached to the base where the
plant enters the rotten wood. While these small species of puff-balls
are not injurious to eat, they do not seem to possess an agreeable
flavor. There are quite a number of species in this country which cannot
be enumerated here.

Related to the puff-balls, and properly classed with them, are the
species of _Scleroderma_. This name is given to the genus because of the
hard peridium, the wall being much firmer and harder than in
_Lycoperdon_. There are two species which are not uncommon, _Scleroderma
vulgare_ and _S. verrucosum_. They grow on the ground or on very rotten
wood, and are sessile, often showing the root-like white strands
attached to their base. They vary in size from 2--6 cm. and the outer
wall is cracked into numerous coarse areas, or warts, giving the plant a
verrucose appearance, from which one of the species gets its specific
name.

=Calostoma cinnabarinum= Desv.--This is a remarkably beautiful plant
with a general distribution in the Eastern United States. It has often
been referred to in this country under the genus name _Mitremyces_, and
sometimes has been confused with a rarer and different species,
_Calostoma lutescens_ (Schw.) Burnap. It grows in damp woods, usually
along the banks of streams and along mountain roads. It is remarkable
for the brilliant vermilion color of the inner surface of the outer
layer of the wall (_exoperidium_), which is exposed by splitting into
radial strips that curl and twist themselves off, and by the vermilion
color of the edges of the teeth at the apex of the inner wall
(_endoperidium_). The plant is 2--8 cm. high, and 1--2 cm. in diameter.
When mature the base or stem, which is formed of reticulated and
anastomosing cords, elongates and lifts the rounded or oval fruiting
portion to some distance above the surface of the ground, when the
gelatinous volva ruptures and falls to the ground or partly clings to
the stem, exposing the peridium, the outer portion of which th