BY EEY. J. E. TEOTrSON- WOODS, F.L.S., Am) F. M. BAILEY, P.L.S. 55 



In speaking of our scrub fungi we must not forget the common 

 Jew's ear, Slrneola auricula-Judw, Berk. Great quantities of it 

 are collected at Tahiti and shipped to China where it is used for 

 soups. It might surely be collected with advantage in both 

 Queensland and New South Wales during wet warm weather, it 

 is very abundant on old timber in our dense scrubs. It is said 

 to fetch in the market when dry about six-pence a pound. Little 

 or no care is required in drying, just placing in the sun and 

 turning now and again for a few days. Hirneola polDtriclm is 

 perhaps the more common in New South Wales and is quite as 

 valuable as an esculent. Use might certainty be made of many 

 of the larger kinds of Pohjporei in a similar way to that in which 

 several are used in Europe in the manufacture of chest protectors. 

 For this purpose they are cut into thin plates dried and beaten 

 until they become soft. The indigenous kinds likely to become 

 useful in this respect are the large and beautiful Polyporus liicidm, 

 Fr., the top of which is highly polished ; P. senex, Mont., a dull 

 brown kind, but one that grows to a large size (specimens may 

 be often met with in our scrubs from one and a-half to two feet 

 in diameter), and Dcedalea Spnccei, Berk., a large thick kind much 

 softer than the last and pure white. Before concluding the few 

 brief remarks on our fungi something should be said of those 

 which attack our grasses. These for the most part belong to the 

 Sub-order Coniomycetes, and are of quite a different character. 

 They have the spores often naked, terminating in conspicuous 

 threads, the perithecium when present being very delicate and 

 evanescent. They belong also to the tribe PaccinicBi. The 

 following are the plants which seem subject to them — Fimhrisfijlis 

 a small grass-like sedge on which occurs Ustilago axicola, Berk. 

 This in some seasons on wet undrained land is very abundant. 

 U. carlo, Tulasne, will be found on the panicles of Aristida a 

 three awned speargrass. On the rice-grass Leersia hexandra, 

 S\v., which is common near water-courses will be found a new 

 species of Thecajjhora glohuUjera, Berk, et Broome. The red rust 



