FUNGI. 393 
remarked, being an Indian invention. A kind of 
fungus called Mylitta Australis, which grows on 
the trunks of trees in Van Diemen’s Land, and 
resembles, when dry, hard compacted lumps of 
sago, is so frequently used by the aborigines that 
it is called ‘native bread ;’ while in the wild and 
desolate island of Tierra del Fuego, the inhabi-. 
tants subsist, during several months, principally 
upon a bright-yellow latticed fungus, growing in 
great abundance on the ever-green beech-trees, 
and called Cyttaria Darwinii after the accom- 
plished naturalist of the ‘Beagle, and the author 
of The Origin of Species. In New Zealand, the 
gelatinous egg or volva of a species of Phallus 
called /icodictyon, is eaten by the natives under 
the name of paru watitird or thunder-dirt. It has 
an execrable taste and loathsome smell, in com- 
mon with the rest of its allies, though its jelly- 
like consistence would seem to indicate nutritive 
qualities. 
Fungi are to a certain extent capable of artifi- 
cial propagation, vast quantities of the higher 
kinds being constantly cultivated for the table. 
In Italy, a species of Agaric is raised from the 
grounds of coffee; and a kind of Polyporus, which 
is greatly relished, is grown simply by singeing 
the stumps of cob-nut trees, and placing them in 
a moist, dark cellar. There is a curious produc- 
