60 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



locality as South Australia. There are good grounds for calling 

 in question the locality given, for, in the Victorian Naturalist, vol. 

 ix., p. 144 (January, 1893), there is an extract from the Gardeners^ 

 Chronicle, in which Dr. Cooke announces the discovery of the 

 fructification under the heading of " A Mystery Solved," and there 

 is a footnote by the editor stating that Miss Campbell (now Mrs. 

 Martin) had previously sent specimens to Dr. Cooke. Since Mr. 

 Tisdall, in the paper previously referred to, also speaks of sub- 

 mitting his specimens to the same authority, there is every proba- 

 bility that the original specimens came from Victoria, and not 

 from South Australia. Since everything connected with the 

 history of such a purely Australian product as " Native Bread " is 

 of interest to naturalists, I have brought forward the seemingly 

 trivial matter of the first locality or source from which the long- 

 sought-for fructification was obtained, in the hope that some 

 members of the Club may settle the question. It is to the credit 

 of the Field Naturalists' Club that before it was first solved the 

 problem of the scientific position of the "Native Bread," and to 

 Mr. Tisdall undoubtedly belongs the honor and credit of being the 

 first person to determine it as a Polyporus and not a Truffle. 



So few examples of the fructification are known that it may be 

 worth while to record them up to date : — 



ist. — Mr. H. T. Tisdall described and exhibited specimens 

 from North Gippsland at this Club on nth November, 1885. 



2nd. — Dr. Cooke scientifically named it for the first time in 

 Grevillea for December, 1892, from specimens sent from South 

 Australia (?). 



3rd. — Prof Saccardo, in Hedwigia for March, 1893, named 

 and described it independently of Dr. Cooke, based on specimens 

 from Western Port, Victoria, forwarded by Prof Spencer. 



^tli. — Mr. R. T. Baker, in the " Proceedings of the Linnean 

 Society, N.S.W., for 1902," describes and gives excellent photo- 

 graphs of a specimen sent from Lithgow, N.S.W., but no spores 

 were obtained. 



^th. — Specimens exhibited by myself before this Club on 9th 

 May, 1904, obtained through Miss Cowle from Tasmania in 

 October, 1903. I also raised perfect specimens from slices of the 

 " Bread " kept moist, and there was a profuse development of 

 spores. 



To complete the life-history of this most interesting fungus it 

 only remains now to produce the " Native Bread " from spores 

 sown under suitable conditions. 



Honours. — In the reference to Mr. A. J. Campbell in the 

 July Naturalist, the word " Corresponding " should read 

 " Colonial." We understand that the number of members so 

 designated is limited to ten. 



