120 
Though the circumstances that caused our visit were 
unfortunate, we could not hut appreciate the opportunity 
it gave to become acquainted with these fine fellow- 
Queenslanders and to see something of their interesting 
islands. It was good to be able to help them. I have 
far more understanding now of the far-flung responsi- 
bilities of our State government and of the way’ in which 
it looks after the islands of the Torres Straits. 
PODAXIS PISTILLARIS, A FUNGUS GROWING ON 
TERMITE MOUNDS 
■I. W. HERBERT 
In many districts in the neighbourhood of Brisbane, 
as well as in other parts of Queensland and the Common- 
wealth, mounds of the termite Eutermes magniis Smith 
are very common. If the termitaria of such a district, 
for example Fernvale on the Ipswieh-Esk road, are care- 
fully searched at almost any time of the year, fruiting- 
bodies of Podaxis pistillaris (Linn.) Morse will almost 
certainly be found on some of them. 
This fungus belongs to the Tulostomataceae, i.e., it 
is oim of the stalked puffballs. As may be seen from the 
accompanying photographs, the fructification consists of 
a stout woody stalk bearing at the apex an oval peridium, 
which contains the spore mass and through which the 
stalk continues as a columella. The species shows great 
variation in colour and size; it may be whitish, brown or 
purple and ranges from two to twenty inches in height. 
The largest specimen of which the writer can find record 
is the one shown on the right in fig. 2, which was twenty 
inches in height ; this would have been taller when fresh, 
as the specimen has a broken tip. 
This puffball is a species of world-wide distribution, 
found in most places growing in the ground in dry 
regions; it is not uncommon in Western Queensland, and 
has been collected in such places as Blackall, Maxweitou, 
Dalby and Charters Towers. These specimens are 
usually not more than about six inches tall. The same 
fungus is, however, common on the termitaria in moister 
regions, and produces much larger fruiting-bodies (up to 
twenty inches). In these moister districts, it is not found 
in the ground. 
In South America, an agaricacoous fungus, Rozites 
gongylophora, is cultivated by a species of the ant A ttn ; 
this ant deliberately grows the fungus within its mound 
