Dr. Macnauinr's Account of the Lycoperdon solidum. 369 
Fugitive negroes sometimes subsist upon it. Deer, the wood-rat 
(a Sorez ?), and probably squirrels, feed upon it when it grows 
sufficiently near the surface of the earth. From the abundance 
in which it grows, and its nutritious quality, it must have been to 
the aborigines a considerable source of subsistence, had they 
known any method of detecting it. The discovery of it now is 
always accidental. | 
This. fungus is parasitic at first, growing out of the living roots 
of various trees. It appears at first, in most instances, between 
the wood of the root and liber; but in some. of the smallest spe- 
cimens accompanying this paper it can be seen only between the 
lamellz of the outer. bark. It may, like other fungi, emanate from — 
dead wood, but the smallest specimens which I have seen were 
attached to living roots. During its growth it detaches the bark - 
from the roots, incorporating it with its coat, surrounds the 
ligneous portion, and gradually assimilates it with its own pe- 
culiar internal substance. If during the expansion of the fan: 
gus it comes in contact with the root of another tree, it is also 
assimilated with it. In large specimens no traces of the bark 
or wood of the original root are discernible. Nothing is known 
respecting the progress or duration of the growth of the Tucka- 
hoe; it has been dug up in — cleared of wood. more than: a 
century. 
The outer coat of this — is of a hainig colour, iod 
roughened by irregular fissures ; the inner, if I may be allowed to 
make this distinction, is coriaceous, resembling that portion of 
some of the Boleti which is used as touchwood ; and when a 
part of the fungus grows exposed, the inner coat of that portion 
is thickened, and when properly dried is very combustible. The 
‘internal substance is insipid, inodorous, of an uniform white, 
compact, and not disposed i in any regular. manner; but in fresh 
specimens, 
