102 FUNGI. 



a fungus, as proved by the examinations made by the Rev. M. J, 

 Berkeley. It is eaten under the name of "Tuckahoe" in the 

 United States, and as it consists almost entirely of poetic acid, 

 it is sometimes used in the manufacture of jelly. 



In the Neilgherries (S. India), a substance is occasionally 

 found which is allied to the native bread of southern latitudes. 

 It is found at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The natives call it 

 " a little man's bread," in allusion to the tradition that the Neil- 

 gherries were once peopled by a race of dwarfs.* At first it was 

 supposed that these were the bulbs of some orchid, but later 

 another view was held of their character. Mr. Scott, who 

 examined the specimens sent down to him, remarks that, instead 

 of being the product of orchids, it is that of an underground 

 fungus of the genus Mylitta. It indeed seems, he says, very 

 closely allied to, if really distinct from, the so-called native 

 bread of Tasmania.f 



Of the fungi employed in medicine, the first place must be 

 assigned to ergot, which is the sclerotioid condition of a species 

 of Claviceps. It occurs not only on rye but on wheat, and many 

 of the wild grasses. On account of its active principle, this 

 fungus still holds its place in the Materia Medtca. Others which 

 formerly had a reputation are now discarded, as, for instance, the 

 species of Elaphomyces ; and Polyporus officinalis, Fr., which has 

 been partly superseded as a styptic by other substances, was 

 formerly employed as a purgative. The ripe spongy capillitium 

 of the great puff-ball Lycoperdon giganteum, Fr., has been used 

 for similar purposes, and also recommended as an anodyne ; 

 indeed formidable surgical operations have been performed under 

 its influence, and it is frequently used as a narcotic in the 

 taking of honey. Langsdorf gives a curious account of its 

 employment as a narcotic ; and in a recent work on Kamts- 

 chatka it is said to obtain a very high price in that country. 

 Dr. Porter Smith writes of its employment medicinally by the 

 Chinese, but from his own specimens it is clearly a species of 

 Polysaccum, which he has mistaken for Lycoperdon. In China 



* "Proceedings Agri. Hort. Soc. India" (Dec. 1871), p. Ixxix. 

 f Ibid. (June, 1872), p. xxiii. 



