1016 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



Wales has tested it in various ways. He found that it contained 78"68 

 per cent, of water and '77 per cent, of ash, which although small in 

 quantity is rich in phosphates. Of course the amount of water will 

 depend on the freshness of the specimen examined. Ho says it 

 does not contain nitrogen in any form and it is practically unalterable 

 in water or reagents. When cut into pieces and placed in liquids, 

 no swelling takes place, and the cut edges lose none of their sharp- 

 ness, nor does the substance soften. If boiled in a dilute alkaline 

 solution, only a small proportion of pectic acid is dissolved and this 

 is thrown down when the solution is rendered acid. Altogether its 

 chemical composition is peculiar and well worthy of special investiga- 

 tion. Mr. Maiden sums up by stating : — " The native bread, therefore, 

 contains a small proportion of pectous substances, and can be only of 

 infinitesimal nutritive value. It is immaterial whether it is eaten raw 

 or boiling, and cold or hot water is equally ineffective in acting upon 

 it. I consider the native bread to consist mainly of a modification of 

 cellulose, most probably fungin." 



Fructification. 



" By their fruits ye shall know them," is a principle of very 

 general application in the vegetable kingdom, and it was only when 

 some means of reproduction were discovered in the native bread that 

 its true nature and its relationship with other forms of fungi were 

 understood. Various guesses were made as to what it really was, 

 and some of these have already been referred to. The question as 

 to what grows out of the sclerotium was answered some time ago, and 

 this leads me to state briefly how the mystery was solved. As early 

 as 1885 Mr. H. T. Tisdall exhibited specimens from Gippsland before 

 the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, from which arose a regular 

 cap and stalk, like an ordinary mushroom or toadstool. But instead 

 of having gills like the edible mushroom on which the spores are 

 developed there were closely crowded tubes on the under surface of 

 the cap containing the spores, and so it was known to be a Polyporus. 

 Mr. Tisdall made a careful coloured drawing which still bears witness 

 to the accuracy of his determination, but, as he himself confesses, he 

 did not understand at the time that he had really solved the problem 

 of the reproduction of Mylitta, but it was solved nevertheless. Then 

 in 1892, Dr. Cooke, the eminent mycologist, announced in the 

 Gardener's Chronicle, under the heading of "A Mystery Solved," the 

 discovery of the fructification on a specimen of native bread sent to 

 him from South Australia. In the Yictorian Naturalist for January, 

 1893, Mrs. W. Martin reports having sent to Dr. Cooke for identifica- 

 tion, a specimen of native bread with the fruiting form attached tu it. 

 He was the first, however, to give it its true scientific name, which 

 not only serves to distinguish it from other forms, but reveals its 

 true relationship — Polyporus mylittae. Early in the succeeding year, 

 Professor Saccardo also described a specimen forwarded by Professor 

 Spencer, from Western Port, Victoria, and named it similarly to Dr. 

 Cooke. The only other record of the fructification is that of Mr. E. 



