166 FUNGI FROM INTERIOU OF A WHITE ANT-HILL. 



appear to me to proceed from a peculiar substance always found in 

 ant-hills in this country (whether white or black), generally called 

 ants' food, a bluish gritty substance, like coarse wheat flour turned 

 mouldy and adhesive. In dry weather brittle, and in damp weather 

 like soft leather. It is this substance, under the combined influence 

 of heat, damp, and darkness, from which the mushrooms grow. 

 As my experience is at variance with the writer in the Gardener^s 

 Chronicle, you may care to record it. The liquor in the bottle 

 with the mushrooms is white wine vinegar, which I thought would 

 best preserve them ; and to ascertain their true shape and length, 

 I would advise your breaking the bottle, for I do not think you can 

 possibly extract them entire otherwise. I would like these mush- 

 rooms, it possible, referred to some mycologist, and their names 

 ascertained ; and I would like also to know if the bluish substance, 

 the ants' food, was collected and treated artificially, could similar 

 mushrooms be raised. I know of several other fungi which are 

 eaten by the people here, and considered good food, w'hich, on pro- 

 curing, I will forward to you to be recognised. One in particular 

 I am desirous of knowing more about, to all appearances like a 

 small potato, and considered the best of all. It is procured from 

 under the ground, and its presence is indicated by the earth crack- 

 ing, generally near the stumps of saul trees. 



The Secretary next read the following remarks furnished by Dr. 

 D. D. Cunningham : — 



" I herewith return the letter sent to me more than a month 

 ago, along with specimens of fungi said to have been procured 

 from the interior of a white ant-hill. The ^specimens apparently 

 belong to some species of Lepiota, and are chiefly remarkable for 

 the extreme length and coarse fibrous contents of the stem. The 

 occurrence of fungi in connection with ant-hills is well known, but 

 in so far as I am aware, those hitherto described as occurring on 

 the hills of the white-ant belong to species of the Gasteromycetous 

 order, Podaxinei, so that the occurrence of a species of one of the 

 sub-genera of Agaricus in such localities is a new and interesting 

 fact. 



With regard to the material from which they arise, and whicli 

 must apparently be of the same nature as the so-called spawn of 

 the cultivated mushroom, consisting of vegetable debris permeated 

 by the mycelium of the fungus, it may be noted that a similar sub- 

 stance is described by Belt as occurring in the nests of the leaf- 

 culling ants of Nicaragua, and is supposed by him to serve as food 

 — the ants culling and storing the leaves for the sake of the fungi 

 which are subsequently developed in the debris. (Naturalist in 

 Nicaragua, pp. 80.) 



Were this spawn artificially exposed to conditions similar to 

 those which it naturally encounters in the interior of the hillocks- 

 heat, darkness, and moisture — I believe that the pilei might very 

 probably be raised at will, and if they really are good eating the 

 experiment would be well worth trying. 



