216 CLASS CRYPTOGAMfA. 



whitish color, which is the sporae or organic germs. 

 That these are capable of germination, like the prolific 

 sporae of the Ferns, is evident to those cultivators who 

 now form artificial Mushroom beds by strewing the 

 decayed plants on prepared banks of manure. 



The genus Boletus which affords the spunk or 

 Touch-wood, resembles the Mushroom generally, but 

 has the under side of the pileus or cap pierced by nu- 

 merous pores in place of gills. 



In the genus Phallus is found the esculent Morel, 

 which has an ovate, cellular pileus, with the stipe nak- 

 ed and wrinkled. This species is not uncommon in 

 the shady forests of Pennsylvania, and on the banks of 

 the Mississippi and Missouri. 



The Truffle or Esculent Puff-ball (Licoperdon Tu- 

 ber) of Europe, is a solid, globular, externally rough 

 fungus, filled with farinaceous sporae, is without root, 

 and grows wholly under ground. The common Puff- 

 ball is known to every one. 



The Tuber cibarium, said to have been also found 

 in the United States, is collected for food in Europe 

 and Asia. It grows above the earth, is globose, solid, 

 destitute of root, and at length becomes black and 

 warty. In this genus, among the most simple of all 

 organized bodies, the substance of the fungus is mere- 

 ly variegated with sporiferous veins. 



The subterraneous Tuber, however, of the southern 

 states, esteemed as an article of food, is probably 

 the Sclerotium Cocos of Schwartz and Schweinitz. 

 It is as large as a human head, exactly of the form of 

 a Cocoa-nut, and is covered by a ligneous, fibrously 

 scaly, hard, brown bark ; internally filled with a some- 

 what fleshy, cork-like matter, when in perfection ap- 

 proaching to a flesh-color. It is scarcely acted upon 

 by any reagent, and remains unaltered for months, 

 when macerated in water, having no fermentible sub- 



