and an allied Chilian Species. 39 



edge of the cup was divided into conical points about ten or twelve in number, 

 and these terminated in an irregular bunch of the above-mentioned threads; 

 the cup was easily detached from the surrounding white substance, excepting 

 at the fringed superior edge. Over the cup was a slight pit in the exterior 

 surface ; this afterwards becomes an external orifice to the cup, when the ge- 

 latinous mass has perhaps formed seeds." 



Mr. Darwin found them much infested with larvae, to which undoubtedly 

 the cavity in many specimens is owing. 



The following observations in Mr. Darwin's notes refer to the species noticed 

 by Bertero : — 



" Sept. 1 834. On the hills near Nancagua and San Fernando there are large 

 woods of Roble, or the Chilian oak. I found on it a yellow fungus, very closely 

 resembling the edible ones of the beech of Tierra del Fuego. Speaking from 

 memory, the difference consists in these being paler coloured, but the inside 

 of the cups of a darker orange. The greatest difference is, however, in the 

 more irregular shape, in place of being spherical : they are also much larger. 

 Many are three times as large as the largest of my Fuegian specimens. The 

 footstalk appears longer ; this is necessary from the roughness of the bark of 

 the trees on which they grow. In the young state there is an internal cavity. 

 They are occasionally eaten by the poor people. I observe that these are not 

 infested with larvae, like those of Tierra del Fuego," 



The account in Bertero's list is as follows : — 



" Fagus obliqua, Mirb., Roble, oak, a tree common in the high mountains. 

 In the spring is formed on the branches of this tree a great number of whitish 

 tubercles, the parenchyma of which is spongy, though sufficiently consistent 

 at first. I thought it a galla or excrescence, produced by the wound of some 

 insect, as is seen on some other trees in Europe, and I gave the matter but 

 little attention ; but tv/o days afterwards they became unglued from the 

 branch, and I observed with surprise that the skin was broken, and the whole 

 surface covered with pentagonal tubes precisely similar to the alveoli of a 

 honeycomb, at first full of a gelatinous substance of the colour of milk, which 

 disappeared with the maturation ; afterwards throwing out from these cavities 

 with some force an impalpable powder, when it was touched, exactly as is ob- 

 served in the Peziza vesiculosa. At the end of two days these bodies softened, 



