PACHYMA COCOS, AND MYLITTA LAPIDESCENS. 95 



starch-grantiles, but without any concentric markings, and exhibiting no reaction with 

 iodine. A section of this portion is shown in PI. IX. fig. 7. The remaining parts of the 

 specimen, marked c and d, and which constitute the main portion of the Fachyma, bear a 

 general resemblance, when seen under the microscope, to the section shown in fig. 7 ; but 

 the component bodies vary more in size, and many of them attain larger dimensions : the 

 mycelium also is far less plentiful. A reference to PI. IX. fig. 8 wiU show the form of a few of 

 the latter bodies, a combination of which with tissue, such as that shown in fig. 7, constitutes 

 the mass of the Pachyma. We entertain no doubt that the bodies shown in PI. IX. fig. 8 

 are of the same nature as those in PI. IX. fig. 7 ; i. e. they are wood-cells, in a more advanced 

 state of disease and distortion. If it is wished to examine the threads or mycelium separately 

 from the substance of the Fachyma, it may be done by selecting a specimen such as that 

 shown in PL X. fig. 9, in which the substance is traversed by cracks. It will then be seen 

 that (at least in some specimens) the opposite walls of the cracks are united by masses of 

 white woolly fibres ; and by taking a small quantity of the wool in forceps, and placing 

 it under the microscope, it will be seen to consist exclusively of delicate threads entirely 

 free from the irregularly shaped starchy-looking bodies forming the mass of the Fa- 

 chyma. These threads are similar to those in PL IX. fig. 7, and are, we suspect, of fungoid 

 origin ; and although we see no reason to doubt that the Fachyma is in the main (as has 

 been long supposed) only an altered state of the root of the tree, we think it highly pro- 

 bable that that altered state is the effect of fungoid disease, and that all the threads above 

 alluded to may be the mycelium to which the disease is due. The section shown in PL X. 

 fig. 6 exhibits at one end, at the points e, a brown dusty mass, formed by the disintegra- 

 tion of the inner bark. The greater part of the interior of this specimen is of a dirty brown 

 colour, produced by a copious admixture of the particles of the bark with the substance 

 of the Fachyma, which latter is not so pure and white as is usually the case. 



3. Choo-ling, Berkeley, Journal of Proceedings of Linn. Soc. vol. iii. (1859) Botany, 

 p. 102. 



CM Urn, Cleyer, Specimen Medicinaa Sinicae (1682), Med. Simp. No. 207- 

 Czzu-lin, Tatarinov, Catal. Medicamentorum Sinensium (Petrop. 1856), p. 17- 

 ^j^ ^^'sL {Choo-ling), Pun-tsaou-kang-muh, cap. xxxvii. sect. 4 (cum icone). 

 ? Hoelen, Rumph. Herb. Amb. xi, p. 123. 



PL IX. figs 10-13 represent specimens of this production, as to which we have little to add 

 to Mr. Berkeley's account {ut supra). No botanical name has yet been proposed for it, 

 which, in the uncertainty that exists respecting its origin and nature, is not to be 

 regretted. Its microscopic structure is similar to that of Fachyma Cocos ; bu.t the threads 

 by which its substance is traversed are much more interwoven and more branched, being 

 in fact almost reticulate : they have not the appearance of being the mycelium of any 

 fungus. We observe the same irregularly shaped bodies as in the Fachyma ; but their 

 dimensions, as remarked by Mr. Berkeley, are smaller : like the Fachyma, they are not 

 rendered blue by iodine. In one or two specimens we have noticed an abundance of 

 doubly pyramidal crystals, and we have also observed that the substance of the interior 

 is much more tough and leathery than in Fachyma, which latter is in fact easily pulve- 



