Order Gasteromycetes Sub-order Trichogastres  

Scleroderma vulgare Fr.  

Common Scleroderma  

Species Characters. S. vulgare. Peridium has a corky appearance, hard, covered with warts or scales splitting indefinitely; varies in size; the large plants are sub-sessile the smaller ones sessile. brown or yellowish brown. The internal substance is a mass of bluish or black purple substance containing the spores which are grouped together in heaps. Found in woods near Baltimore, Maryland, June. July. and even as late as September in 1877. In the summer of 1877 this plant was very plentiful. It sometimes reaches the size of an ordinary potato; sessile, and without warts, internally filled with a bright purple floccose substance. In 1878, very few members of the Gasteromycete family appeared, the season was not favorable to them and I found only two or three of the above plants, none in 1879. In September 1880 I found this plant growing in large clusters on a slope of the Blue Ridge Mountains, some were very large. This is edible in its early stage of growth.