Dr. Macb ride's Account of the Lycoperdon solidum. 369 



Fugitive negroes sometimes subsist upon it. Deer, the wood-rat 

 (viSorexf), and probably squirrels, feed upon it when it grows 

 suffieiently near the surface of the earth. From the abundance 

 in which it grows, and its nutritious quality, it must have been to 

 the aborigines a considerable source of subsistence, had they 

 known any method of detecting it. The discovery of it now is 

 always accidental. 



This fungus is parasitic at first, growing out of the living roots 

 of various trees. It appears at first, in most instances, between 

 the wood of the root and liber; but in some of the smallest spe- 

 cimens accompanying this paper it can be seen only between the 

 lamellae of the outer bark. It may, like other fungi, emanate from 

 dead wood, but the smallest specimens which I have seen were 

 attached to living roots. During its growth it detaches the bark 

 from the roots, incorporating it with its coat, surrounds the 

 ligneous portion, and gradually assimilates it with its own pe- 

 culiar internal substance. If during the expansion of the fun- 

 gus it comes in contact with the root of another tree, it is also 

 assimilated with it. In large specimens no traces of the bark 

 or wood of the original root are discernible. Nothing is known 

 respecting the progress or duration of the growth of the Tucka- 

 Iioe; it has been dug up in lands cleared of wood more than a 

 century. 



The outer coat of this fungus is of a dark-brown colour, and 

 roughened by irregular fissures ; the inner, if I may be allowed to 

 make this distinction, is coriaceous, resembling that portion of 

 some of the Boleti which is used as touchwood ; and when a 

 part of the fungus grows exposed, the inner coat of that portion 

 is thickened, and when properly dried is very combustible. The 

 internal substance is insipid, inodorous, of an uniform wliite, 

 compact, and not disposed in any regular manner; but in fresh 



specimens, 



