681 
February 25, 1871.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
JEW’S EAR. 
(Hirneola Auricula- Jmice.) 
BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. 
Notwithstanding Mr. Simmonds’s interesting hook 
on that subject, there are still some chapters in the 
history of the “ Curiosities of Food” unwritten, espe¬ 
cially those relating to vegetable diet. So peculiar 
are the tastes of the Chinese, that we are ready to 
believe it possible for them to relish anything what¬ 
ever, provided it can be manipulated in any way so 
as to be capable of mastication. All kinds of gela¬ 
tinous substances, whether birds’ nests, sea slugs, 
shark fins, seaweeds, and even gelatinous fungi are 
pressed into the service of the Chinese gastronomist. 
To the latter belongs the subject of the present 
notice. 
Old Elder stumps in this country are frequently 
inhabited by a singularly flabby-looking fungus, to 
which the name of “ Jew’s-ear” has been given, on 
account of its fancied resemblance to a human ear. 
Our figure represents a small specimen, with a sec- 
Hirneola Auricula-Jiidce. 
tion beside it, and one of the elliptical spores. This 
fungus belongs to the Tremellini, an order of fungi 
that are characteristically gelatinous. The scien¬ 
tific name is recorded above. There is but one 
British species of the genus, and that is widely 
distributed; it is found again in the United States, 
and amongst the islands of the South Seas. The 
fungus itself is thin, concave, flexuous and blackish, 
folded and veined everywhere, with the under surface 
velvety, and of a cinereous-olive. When dry it has 
a horny texture, and shrinks very much, but it will 
swell out again nearly to its natural size and form if 
immersed in water, even after the lapse of many 
years. The size varies from one to three inches in 
diameter, and sometimes two or three individuals are 
confluent. 
It seems never to have entered into the heads of 
Englishmen, not even professed mycopliagists, that 
this leathery-looking “Jew’s-ear” could be converted 
into food. There was exhibited in the Indian De¬ 
partment of the Exhibition of 1862 a bottle of dried 
fungi, sent from China, b} 1- way of Singapore, which 
consisted wholly of this species,, identified by us at 
the time, and as such inserted in the catalogue. By 
reference also to the catalogue of the French Colo¬ 
nies for the same Exhibition (at p. 109), we find 
enumerated from Tahiti “ Champignons dits oreilles 
de rats, Exidia Auricula- Judce —Taria eriore.” In 
a note it is stated that tills fungus is very common at 
Tahiti and the neighbouring islands, and is in great 
esteem in China, to which country it is largely ex¬ 
ported. In the fifth volume of Seemann’s ‘ Journal of 
Third Series, No. 35. 
Botany’ (p. 263), is a paragraph stating that Mr. 
Brander, a well-known merchant, residing at Tahiti, 
had furnished the following information about an 
edible fungus, of which quantities were often sent to 
Sydney; lie says, “What is called ‘fungus’ in our 
export list, is an article of commerce found in the 
islands of the South Pacific, principally the Society 
and Leeward Islands, on decayed trees. The Tahi¬ 
tians call it ‘ Teria iore’ ( i. e. rat’s ear), from a cer¬ 
tain resemblance of the shape of the plant to the ear 
of a rat. The fungus first began to be collected in 
1863, and fetches in China, where it is much esteemed 
and made into soups, from eighteen to twenty cents 
per pound.” In a subsequent number of the same 
journal (vi. p. 339), this fungus was referred without 
doubt to the present species. 
This was almost all that could be collected of 
information about the Jew’s-ear, until very re¬ 
cently, when v r e heard of it again in a rather unex¬ 
pected quarter. From the Reports of the United 
States Department of Agriculture, we gather that 
“ the Bulletin (California) announces the arrival at 
San Francisco of a brig from Tahiti, with about 
thirty thousand pounds of fungus gathered on the 
trees in the southern part of the Society Islands, and 
packed in bags woven from slips of Booroa bark, the 
same wood from which the orange crates are made. 
This fungus is in appearance like very thin and dirty 
india-rubber, and is to be shipped to China for use 
in making ‘ soup’ in the Celestial kingdom. The 
value is about twelve and a half cents per pound at 
the islands, and about one hundred thousand pounds 
are produced there annually.”* 
It is very clear that all these statements refer to 
the same thing, the Hi rneola Auricula-Judce^ of 
Fries, which we allow to ripen, and rot upon Elder 
stumps and Elms, but which is an article of commerce 
in the South Seas, and is collected there after the 
rate of 100,000 lb. a year. The only market for 
this strange product seems to be China, and the sam¬ 
ple sent from thence to the Exhibition of 1862 was 
in all probability, not indigenous, but derived, in the 
way of trade, from Tahiti. The observation that fit 
was not collected there till 1863, as mentioned by 
Mr. Brander, might be an error of date for 1861, or, 
it might not have been collected as a regular article 
of commerce until 1863. At any rate, it was most 
certainly exhibited in London in 1862, from China 
and Tahiti, as will be seen by reference'to the Cata¬ 
logues of India, and the French Colonies. 
At one time this fungus had a reputation for the 
cure of sore throats, and also as a topical astringent. 
Its faculty of absorbing and holding water like a 
sponge has resulted in its use as a medium for apply¬ 
ing eyewater to weak or diseased eyes, and similar 
purposes. Of late years it is seldom, perhaps never, 
to be met with in the herbalists’ shops, and, in Eng¬ 
land at least, its reputation and “ occupation’s gone.” 
Old Gerarde writes thus of it, “ the fungous excres¬ 
cence of the Elder, commonly called a Jewes eare, 
is much used against the inflammations and all other 
sorenesses of the throat, being boyled in milke, 
steeped in beere, vinegar, or any other convenient 
liquor.” A rude figure is given under the name of 
Auricula Judas, which name is applied to it also by 
Lobel, but the fungus is not figured by him. 
* Monthly Report'of the Department of Agriculture of the 
Jnited States, January 1869, p. 28. 0<r . r or 
t Cooke’s ‘Handbook of British Fungi, p. 349, tig. Cl. 
