102 FUNGI. 
a fungus, as proved by the examinations made by the Rev. M. J. 
Berkeley. It is eaten under the name of “ Tuckahoe” in the 
United States, and as it consists almost entirely of pectic acid, 
it is sometimes used in the manufacture of jelly. 
In the Neilgherries (8. India), a substance is occasionally 
found which is allied to the native bread of southern latitudes. 
It is found at an elevation of 5,000 feet. The natives call it 
“a little man’s bread,”’ in allusion to the tradition that the Neil- 
gherries were once peopled by a race of dwarfs.* At first it was 
supposed that these were the bulbs of some orchid, but later 
another view was held of their character. Mr. Scott, who 
examined the specimens sent down to him, remarks that, instead 
of being the product of orchids, it is that of an underground 
fungus of the genus JMylitta. It indeed seems, he says, very 
closely allied to, if really distinct from, the so-called native 
bread of Tasmania.t 
Of the fungi employed in medicine, the first place must be 
assigned to ergot, which is the sclerotioid condition of a species 
of Claviceps. It occurs not only on rye but on wheat, and many 
of the wild grasses. On account of its active principle, this 
fangus still holds its place in the Materia Medica. Others which 
formerly had a reputation are now discarded, as, for instance, the 
species of Elaphomyces ; and Polyporus officinalis, Fr., which has 
been partly superseded as a styptic by other substances, was 
formerly employed as a purgative. The ripe spongy capillitium 
of the great puff-ball Lycoperdon giganteum, Vr., has been used 
for similar purposes, and also recommended as an anodyne; 
indeed formidable surgical operations have been performed under 
its influence, and it is frequently used as a narcotic in the 
taking of honey. Langsdorf gives a curious account of its 
employment as a narcotic; and in a recent work on Kamts- 
chatka it is said to obtain a very high price in that country. 
Dr. Porter Smith writes of its employment medicinally by the 
Chinese, but from his own specimens it is clearly a species of 
Polysaccum, which he has mistaken for Lycoperdon. In China 
* Proceedings Agri. Hort. Soc. India’? (Dec. 1871), p. lxxix. 
+ Ibid. June, 1872), p. xxiii. 
