Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Usage examples of "puff-ball".
I have already drawn your attention to the anaesthetic properties of the lycoperdon, or common puff-ball.
The genus Lycoperdon belongs to this group, and it contains the puff-balls so common in this country.
The Lycoperdons contain several genera, among which we select the Puff-balls proper and the Earth stars.
Red toadstools towered over my head, puff-balls dusted me with yellow spores, trumpetlike chanterelles dripped water from their cups, clusters of pin-head mushrooms glowed white like corpses.
I don't know what to do, so I put my arms around her too, leaning forward slightly to allow for the volume of the puff-ball skirt, one hand on the grey satin, and one on her back, her beautiful back, just where the flesh swells out over the top of the satin, and she whispers in my ear - 'you are such a lovely man' - and I think I'm going to cry again, not because I am such a lovely man, but because I'm such a disgusting, fucking stupid, fucking twat, so I squeeze my eyes tight shut and we stay like that for a little while.
Even the mountain-slopes were more fruitful on this side, for Eibon and Morghi had not descended far when they entered a grove of enormous puff-balls and toadstools.