SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
85 
species of Botrychium may be found, with a view to determine tbe ques- 
tion. 
The American Compass Plant . — Dr. Thomas Hill, who read a paper on 
this subject before the American Association at the last meeting, says that 
in June, 1869, as he was coming from Omaha to Chicago, on a very dark 
rainy day — so dark that he could not form any estimate of the points of 
the compass from the sunlight — at three different points on the prairies he 
noticed young plants of Silphium laciniatum , and estimated from them, while 
going at full speed, the course of the railway track. On reaching Chicago 
he procured, by the kindness of the officers of the C. & N. W. road, detailed 
maps of the track, and found where he had estimated the bearing at 35°, 
75°, and 90°, the true bearings were 31°, 78°, and 90°. In October, 1869, 
being detained by an accident at Tama, he gathered seed, and this spring- 
raised a few seedlings. Drought and insects destroyed part of them, and he 
could only give the history of eight plants, with fourteen leaves. Ten of 
these fourteen leaves showed a strong disposition, when about four inches 
high, to turn to the meridian ; the other four showed a -feeble disposition in 
the same direction. These ten leaves, on coming up in June, had an average 
bearing of 42°, and the mean bearing was nearly as large. But in August 
the same ten leaves showed an average bearing of only 4^-°, and the mean 
bearing was but 2^°. Dr. Hill refers this polarity to the sunlight, the two 
sides of the leaf being equally sensitive, and struggling for equal shares. 
He hoped in a more favourable summer to test this, and several other points 
which had suggested themselves, by experiments. 
Scleroderma vulgare an Eatable Fungus. — The Food Journal (an interesting 
periodical, which we are glad to see succeeding) contains a very interesting 
note on the above by the Bev. M. J. Berkeley, F.R.S., in the December number. 
It is as follows : — u I was somewhat surprised some time since, amongst a 
host of other enquiries respecting the qualities of particular fungi, to have 
Scleroderma vulgare submitted to me ; and still more so, after my evil report 
of it, to find that it had been largely eaten and pronounced very good. It is 
only in the young state, of course, that any question could arise about it, for 
like its allied puff-balls, when old, it is filled with a mass of loathsome dust. 
I ought, however, to have recollected that its use as an article of food was 
no novelty, as under another and false name it has been largely employed at 
Paris instead of the truffle of Perigord, to adulterate Perigord pies, the 
quality of which was, in consequence, much deteriorated. Young speci- 
mens were given by the late Monsieur Desmazieres in his ‘ Plantes Crypto- 
games du Nord de la Prance,’ Fasc. xvi., 1836, as specimens of the white 
truffle, though the structure is totally different. It is found abundantly in 
the neighbourhood of Mons, where it frequently appears in the market, and 
is sent from Belgium, in great quantities, to Paris. Some pains are taken to 
guard it in the place of its growth, by covering it with earth, until of suffi- 
cient size, against the ravages of animals, but especially of the magpies. 
The same thing clearly is figured by Oorda, under the name of Pompholyx 
sapidum , who considers it superior to either the black or white truffle. I 
am not certain whether Dr. Bull, who is such an authority on the subject, 
has really tried its culinary properties ; but in a letter, recently received, he 
says, 1 1 am afraid Scleroderma vulgare , though doubtless edible when 
