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VII. On two Tubertform Vegetable Productions from Travancore. 

 By the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 3LA., F.L.S. 



Read May 3, 1860. 



In the spring of the year 1868 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, caUed in the Tamil language _,iV)/v2/i_D'X'"R.0rcr Futtu-manga, a name which 

 I understand may be translated Wliite-ant Mango or White-ant Fruit, occurs in Travancore. 

 The following history of it was sent with the sj)ecimens 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 sm'face, I found 

 several holes scooped out in the earth, perfectly smooth and circular, of suiflcient 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 Futtu-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 polymorpha, 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 Pachyma ; 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 Phsenogam, but of a fungous character, though it does not 

 exactly agree in structure with any thing that I know. Notwithstanding some little 

 resemblance, it cannot, I think, be associated with Fachynia Cocos ; and therefore, if it 

 be desirable to give so very doubtful a production a name, it may be called Sclerotlmn 

 stipitatum, Berk. & Curr. It is distinguishable at once by the stem and the shining 



* Journ. of the Proceedings of the Linneau Society, vol. iii. (1859) Botany, p. 102. 



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