A DECEPTIVE "FUNGUS." 



Miss Mary Fitzgerald has been one of my most valued correspondents 

 from the South, as she has the faculty of picking up odd things such as rarely 



reach me from other correspondents. 



Recently she sent me some butterflies 

 with yellow, club-shaped bodies growing 

 from their eyes. Photograph increased 

 six diameters shows these little bodies. 

 Miss Fitzgerald took them for parasitic 

 fungi, and so did I, particularly as I ex- 

 amined them through a microscope and 

 found them composed of cells filled with 

 granular matter that I mistook for spores. 



As I know nothing whatever about 

 parasitic fungi on insects, I sent them to 

 Prof. Roland Thaxter, who is the world's 

 authority on this class of fungi, and he ad- 

 vises me that the bodies are not fungi at 

 all, but the pollinia of Asclepias which the 

 insect attaches to its head when hunting 

 the nectar of the flower. 



These bodies are all attached by a slen- 

 der base with the thickened, club-shaped 

 apex extending in front. They look just 

 like a little clavate fungus, and would be 

 PI 394 , X6) apt to deceive almost any one. 



PHALLUS INDUSIATUS AS FOOD. 



We reproduce an interesting letter received from Professor S. Kawamura, 

 of the Botanical Institute of Tokyo, with reference to the use of Phallus in- 

 dusiatus as food among the' Chinese. 



"Many times I have been asked about the scientific name of a fungus 

 called "Chikuson" in Chinese, which is used for cooking in China. But I had 

 not had occasion to see the plant and had not heard enough about it to know 

 what kind of a plant it is. I have now had opportunity to examine the dry 

 specimens of this plant, given to the Botanical Institute by Dr. Yabe, who had 

 been in Peking for five years. From those specimens I have found they are 

 the stems, veils, and cups of a fungus named Dictyophora phalloidea, Desv. 



"At the same time I was surprised to know that this plant is really eaten 

 by mankind, because this is a fungus considered as poisonous by many authors, 

 and there is no mycologist to this day who tells of the use of this fungus. The 

 smell of its mucous gleba is very detestable, and so distinctive that a specimen 

 may be detected many feet away. Whenever I examined with a microscope 

 the fresh specimens of this fungus I found in the spores many bacteria in motion. 

 Because of this aspect I approve of the poisonousness of this fungus, though 

 any poisonous ingredient was not yet isolated from fungus. And if these bac- 

 teria themselves would not be injurious to the human body, they would produce 

 some poison by their powerful, decaying effect. Now I have learned that the 

 very fungus considered as poisonous is used for food in China. It is said that 

 the caps and stems, with the reticulate veils of the plant, are collected, leaving 

 the volvas in the ground, and are carefully washed with water to free from 

 the detestable mucous, and are then dried by exposure to the sun, and sent to the 

 market." 



I suppose no one need be surprised at what a Chinaman may eat, yet to 

 an ordinary mortal a phalloid would be the last thing he would ask for as 

 food. It is possible, however, that putting aside sentiment, phalloids may be as 

 good food as rats, puppies, or bird's nests, which are all highly esteemed in 

 China. It all seems to be a question of taste and education, and when you 



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