972 General Notes. (September, q 
leaves, were not strikingly inferior in appearance to the water 
plant. The soils treated with inorganic acids first lost their re 
tentiveness, and eventually all became similarly affected. The 
water plant alone formed a secondary radical branch.—l. P 
Gratacap, 77th st. and 8th ave., New York City 
Tuckanor.—In the forthcoming volume of the Smithsonian 
report. Professor J. Howard Gore will have a paper on tuckahoe, 
or Indian bread. The word is a very common one in the sandy : 
region of the Atlantic slope, but it does not apply to the same 
substance, being applied to Orontium, Arum virginicum, a 
vulus panduratus as well as to various fungi. The synonymyis — 
quite formidable of the true tuckahoe, as Pachyma cocos (Fries), 
Pachyma solidum (Oken), Pachyma pinetorum (Horaninow), Pa 
ma coniferarum (Horaninow), Lycoperdon solidum (Clayton), , 
coperdon sclerocium (Nuttall), Lycoperdon cervinum (Walter), Selera 
cium cocos (Schweinitz), Sclerocium giganteum (MacBride), Ti 
haus rugosus (Rafinesque). 
The affinities, habitat, growth and formation and chemical com- 
position are worked out with’ the greatest care, several tables 
analyses being given. em 
“The most notable peculiarities of this substance are the entire 
absence of starch (‘ No fungus has yet been found to contain t 
starch,’ Sach’s ‘ Botany,’ p. 241), the comparatively small amoun — 
extracted by solvents, the gelatinous character of the ceHuloss 
and the very small amount of albuminous substance. Nothing 
else yet analyzed has been reported to contain so large a propor 
tion of pectinous matter. In ordinary fruits, such as arè 
monly used for making jellies, these pectin bodies seldom a 
to ten per cent. According to Sach’s Botany, ‘ the origin 
loidal pectin is still unknown.’ Its nutritive value seems i 
be entirely undecided. The older writers considered 
ascribed w m 
