80 Transactions, — Miscellaneous. 



13. Several fungi were also eaten in the summer season, such as the 

 two large terrestrial species called jMikuraii ( Lycoperdon funtanesei and L. 

 giganteum,) ; the harore (Agaricus advposus) ; the hakekakeka (Hi^meola auricula 

 jiuhv) ; and the parmckatitiri (Ileodictyon cibariumj. Of this last, only the 

 thick gelatinous volva, or outer shell, was eaten, and that when young and 

 before it hurst. For — after it had hurst and thrown out its curious pileus of 

 glohe- shaped white network, covered with dark and fetid slime — its stench 

 was unendurable ; hence, no doubt, and from noticing how readily they 

 sprang up after thunder showers, arose its Maori name — thunder excre- 

 ment !* The two species of pukuraic grew commonly in the open fern and 

 grass lands, and were often of large size, and when young are very good 

 eating. One species, L. giganteum, is said to be identical with the well- 

 known edible European species of that name. The harore and hakekakeka 

 were found plentifully on trees, both living and dead, in the woods, but 

 were not greatly esteemed ; recourse would be made to them in times of 

 want. 



14. The thick, fleshy roots of the New Zealand lily, rengarenga (Arthro- 

 podium cirrhatum), were also formerly eaten, cooked in the earth-oven. This 

 plant grows to a very large size in suitable soil, and when cultivated in 

 gardens. From this circumstance, and from having not unfrequently 

 noticed it about old deserted residences and cultivations, I am inclined to 

 beheve that it was also cultivated. 



* Kev. Mr. Berkeley has a curious error, in his work already quoted, respecting this 

 plant (similar to that about the fern-root). He says, — " In New Zealand the gelatinous 

 volva of Ileodictyon affords an execrable article of food, which would indeed be used no- 

 where except under great scarcity of better sustenance." And again, — " The gelatinous 

 volva of Ileodictyon is eaten in New Zealand, but it must be a very unpleasant kind of 

 food ; and the same part of Lysurus mokztsin is eaten by the Chinese." — Loc. cit., pp. 254 

 and 334. No doubt Mr Berkeley supposed that this fungus was used as an article of food 

 after bursting. Just as if one was to write against the use of asparagus for food after it 

 was in flower ! A similar or worse error is also made, or enlarged, by Dr. Lim ley, in 

 writing on the mangrove tree ( Avicennia officinalii<, Lin.) ; he says, — " It exudes a kind of 

 green aromatic resin, which furnishes a miserable food to the barbarous Natives of New 

 Zealand, who call it manaiva." — Veg. Kingdom, p. 665. Dr. Hooker, in his Handbook of the 

 New Zealand Flora, attributes this error to Forster, who — certainly in two of his botanical 

 works ("Plant. Escul." and " Prodromus") — had named the New Zealand mangrove, A. 

 resinifera ; but, as Forster was never in the North Island of New Zealand, where alone 

 the tree grows, he coiild not have even seen the hving plant. Forster had obtained that 

 information from Crozet (Voyage de M. Marion) ; and Crozet had jumped to that con- 

 clusion from seeing the Bay of Islands Maoris chewing the l■a^lri resin (not to eat, but as 

 a mere masticatory, an old practice of theirs), and from noticing the large lumps of that 

 resin floating about and stranded on the sea-mud among the mangroves, — and so en'or 

 grows and is perpetuated ! 



