THE VICTORIAN NATUKALIST. 59 



I think it was either Mr. Barnard or Mr. French, of our CKib, 

 who informed me some time ago that the Mylitta was pronounced 

 to be a Polyporus by some European botanist, and I immediately 

 thought of my drawings made so many years aj;o. I had mislaid 

 them, and it was only last month that I discovered them at the 

 Education Department. 



Following up this accidental discovery, we can now prove by a 

 few experiments — that is, by placing some freshly dug up 

 specimens in a dark, damp, but airy place — whether they 

 always produce the shoots resembling Polyporei. 



We cannot help noticing how alike is the life-history of the 

 Ergot of Rye and Mylitta australis. 



They both form a sclerotium. They both lie on or in the 

 ground for a long time, and under certain circumstances they 

 both produce from their surface certain outgrowths, which swell 

 into large heads ; here they differ, for the head of the Ergot 

 produces asci containing spores, whilst the head of the Mylitta 

 produces naked spores on basidia. 



In conclusion, I would like to ask some of our members to 

 finally solve this interesting problem. 



The Mylitta is common all through Gippsland and in the 

 Dandenong Ranges. It is found under the ground, the depth 

 varying from a few inches to several feet. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE FUNGUS POLYPORUS 

 MYLITTjE, Cooke and Masses. 

 By D. M'Alpine. 

 At the May meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club, in connec- 

 tion with Mr. Tisdall's paper, I called attention to the fact that 

 while Mr. R. T. Baker, F.L.S., in the " Proceedings of the 

 Linnean Society of New South Wales," vol. xxvii., 1902, stated 

 that only one specimen in fructification had been recorded, 

 obtained from South Australia, there were really others. The 

 " Native Bread " was first scientifically named by Berkeley, in 

 1839, Mt/litta australis, but in the absence of fructification its real 

 systematic position could not be determined, and, being under- 

 ground, it was supposed to belong to the Truffle family. 



The first undoubted notice of the fructification was by Mr. H. 

 T. Tisdall, on nth November, 1885, when he described 

 before this Club (^Victorian Naturalist, vol. ii., p. 109, 

 January, 1886), specimens obtained in Gippsland which 

 developed a regular stem and pileus, and, as he remarked, 

 there was no doubt of their being veritable Polyporei. An 

 accurate coloured drawing of the specimen still attests the 

 accuracy of Mr. Tisdall's determination. The next notice of it I 

 find is in Grevillea for December, 1892, where Dr. Cooke first 

 describes it, and accurately names it Polyporus mylitta;, giving the 



