FUNGI. 367 
simply laying a piece of it on the part affected. 
Like the soft contents of puff-balls, it is used 
occasionally to stanch blood in wounds, and as a 
sovereign remedy for a cut finger. When steeped 
in saltpetre, and cut into thin slices, it forms most 
excellent tinder, and is employed in the form of 
Jusees by smokers in Germany and England. In 
Lapland, it is considered an indispensable article 
in domestic economy, Linnzus relating that he 
saw it hung up for various purposes on the walls 
of every cottage he entered. The Azrneola or 
Few’s-ear had at one time a reputation for the 
cure of sore-throats, and also as a topical astrin- 
gent. Owing to its power of absorbing water like 
a sponge it is sometimes used as a medium for the 
application of eye-water to sore eyes. There isa 
very curious fungus found in the interior of old 
deserted white ant-hills in the Coimbatore and 
Malabar districts of Southern India, which is 
gathered by the natives as a specific in cholera 
and a variety of other diseases, and highly prized. 
Its Indian name is Puttu Mango, or White Ant- 
hill Mango, while to botanists it is known as the 
Sclerotium stipitatum. During the monsoons it 
attains the size of an orange. It grows in clusters 
of six or more, hanging each by a separate stalk 
from the roof of the outer passage of the ant-hills, 
or simply overlying the floors of the cells with- 
