THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
sliced and fried in butter makes a most palatable dish. It 
is likely that in time efforts will be made to grow this plant 
just as we now grow mushrooms. 
Average specimens are commonly too large for a single 
meal, but if one uses care, enough for a meal may be sliced 
from the top and the remainder will remain in condition for 
a long time. Indeed, removing part of the puffball seems to 
delay the process of ripening. Thus does nature play into the 
hands of the cook. Somewhere in the account of his travels 
:Marco Polo tells of an ox he saw from which steaks could be 
cut and new ones would grow to take their places. If he had 
said puffball instead of ox, his tale would have come nearer 
to the bounds of possibility. 
In thedays of flint and steel the contents of a ripepuffball 
made an excellent tinder for receiving the sparks struck from 
the flint. It has also been used as a sponge, a styptic and a 
dye-stuff. At present its only use is a culinary one. If used 
before the flesh shows the least trace of color, it is a most 
palatable and nourishing food, being not unlike beefsteak in 
composition. 
OUR ORCHIDS. 
JX a very general way most people know about orchids. 
Much has been written about them in general popular 
literature and in costly illustrated scientific works only acces- 
sible in libraries. Travelers have, in their records, inci- 
dentally, much to say of them, and their obser\-ations are 
often of value. 
For a long time now there has been a craze or fad for 
orchids that was never equaled in plant histor>^ except in 
the mad seeking for choice Dutch tulips in the late Middle 
Ages. Daring collectors are out all over the worid ever 
