USES. 103 
several species are supposed to possess great virtue, notably the 
Torrubia sinensis, Tul.,* which is developed on dead caterpillars ; 
as it is, however, recommended to administer it as a stuffing to 
roast duck, we may be sceptical as to its own sanitary qualities. 
Geaster hygrometricus, Fr., we have also detected amongst 
Chinese drugs, as also a species of Polysaccum, and the small 
hard Afylitta lapidescens, Horn. In India, a large but imper- 
fect fungus, named provisionally Selerotium stipitatum, Curr., 
found in nests of the white ant, is supposed to possess great 
medicinal virtues.f A species of Polyporus (P. anthelminticus, 
B.), which grows at the root of old bamboos, is employed in 
Burmah as an anthelmintic.t In former times the Jew’s ear 
(Hirneola auricula Juda, Fr.) was supposed to possess great 
virtues, which are now discredited. Yeast is still included 
amongst pharmaceutical substances, but could doubtless be very 
well dispensed with. Truffles are no longer regarded as aphro- 
disiacs. 
For other uses, we can only allude to amadou, or German 
tinder, which is prepared in Northern Europe from Polyporus 
fomentarius, Fr., cut in slices, dried, and beaten until it is soft, 
This substance, besides being used as tinder, is made into warm 
caps, chest protectors, and other articles. This same, or an 
allied species of Polyporus, probably P. igniarius, Fr., is dried 
and pounded as an ingredient in snuff by the Ostyacks on 
the Obi. In Bohemia some of the large Polyporei, such as 
P. igniarius and P. fomentarius, have the pores and part of the 
inner substance removed, and then the pileus is fastened’ in an 
inverted position to the wall, by the part where originally it 
adhered to the wood. The cavity is then filled with mould, 
and the fungus is used, with good effect, instead of flower-pots, 
for the cultivation of such creeping plants as require but little 
moisture.§ 
The barren mycelioid condition of Penicillium crustaceum, 
* Lindley, ‘* Vegetable Kingdom,” fig. xxiv. 
+ Currey, F., in ‘‘ Linn. Trans.” vol. xxiii. p. 93, 
¢ “Pharmacopeia of India,” p. 258. 
§ ‘*Gard. Chron.” (1862), p. 21. 
