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VII. On two Tuberiform Vegetable Productions from Travaucore 
By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S. 
Read May 3, 1860. 
IN the spring of the year 1858 a short notice was read of some remarkable vegetable 
productions from China *. Two similar organisms have lately been transmitted by Dr. 
E. J. "Waring of Trevandrum, Travancore, to Mr. Hanbury, who has kindly entrusted 
them to me for examination. Prepared sections accompanied the specimens, and I have 
had the advantage of Mr. Currey's assistance in their examination ; after all, however, 
I can do little more than place on record the account transmitted to Mr. Hanbury. 
The first, called in the Tamil language i_ 6o <vy lo rr /Tv &> o~ Puttu-manga, a name which 
I understand may be translated White-ant Mango or White-ant Fruit, occurs in Travancore. 
The following history of it was sent with the specimens to Mr. Hanbury : — " Three weeks 
since, I had occasion to open the floor of the centre room of my house for the purpose of 
building two walls ; and on digging to the depth of three feet below the surface, I found 
several holes scooped out in the earth, perfectly smooth and circul ar, of sufficient size to 
admit a man's hand. Hanging down from the sides of these cavities were clusters of 4, 5, 
6, or 10 of the accompanying fruits, of various sizes and shapes. On showing them to the 
native practitioners, they eagerly took possession of the greater number, calling them by the 
name of Puttu-manga, and stating that they were found, though but rarely, under the 
foundations of old buildings, and that they were formed or produced by the white ants. 
They likewise stated that they were highly valued for medicinal purposes. The cavities 
above alluded to are doubtless the chambers or galleries formed by the white ants/' 
They look at first sight extremely like some neat variety of Xylaria polymorph', with a 
slender stem and pointed barren apex. There are, however, no perithecia beneath the 
jet-black cuticle ; and the structure is not delicately filamentous, as in Xylaria. On the 
contrary, the mass consists of very irregular, swollen, and sometimes constricted, more or 
less anastomosing, and more or less densely compacted threads. Towards the margin the 
substance is firm, but looser towards the centre, so that the individual threads easily 
separate. The structure in some respects resembles that of Pachjma ; but there is no 
indication of the threads having undergone any chemical change. I should say that it is 
certainly not the root of any Phamogam, but of a fungous character, though it does not 
exactly agree in structure with any thing that I know. Notwithstanding some little 
esemblance, it cannot, I think, be associated with Pachyma Cocos ; and therefore, if it 
be desirable to give so very doubtful a production a name, it may be called Sole? 
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stipitatum, Berk. & Curr. It is distinguishable at once by the stem and the shinin 
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* Journ. of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society, vol. iii. (1859) Botany, p. 102. 
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