14 
enabled me to add a few more een to the collection and were 
the last I obtained in the Philippines. 
The entire collections of rae nee include about 240 species of 
mosses. Of these apparently some 7 per cent. are undescribed. 
Four of the species occur in the United States. Others occur 
that have before only been reported from the Fiji islands and 
from Asia and many of the species are common to Java, Borneo 
and New Zealand as might be expected. 
Notes on Truffles Recently Collected in the Eastern United States, 
presented by Dr. SEAVER and Dr. MuRRILL 
The truffles are the most valuable of the edible fungi and are, 
at the same time, the most difficult to collect, since they occur 
buried from two to eight inches in the ground. In Europe, where 
these fungi are collected and sold as a commercial article, they are 
collected with the aid of trained animals, such as pigs and dogs. 
These animals are Se to scent the fungi and are taught to hunt 
and dig them uropeans coming to America who are familiar 
with the habits Pe these fungi in Europe arfd the means employed 
there to collect and put them on the market, are naturally 
interested in finding them in this country in sufficient quantity 
bring financial returns. Several attempts have been made 
to interest the Garden in the matter, and it has been difficult to 
impress these various individuals with the fact that we are 
interested in the matter only from a scientific point of view and 
as a commercial enterprise 
In October of this year, a box of truffles was sent to the Garden 
for our examination with a note requesting information regarding 
their food value. Later, the sender of this material made a visit 
here and stated that the truffles had been collected in the vicinity 
of New York through the aid of a trained dog imported from Italy. 
The specimens were filed away in the herbarium for later study. 
In November of the same year, a second package of these fungi 
was received which v was os to have been collected in New Jersey. 
of these plants showed them to be two 
different species: Later, a third collection of the plants was 
