64 SPENCER’S JOURNAL 
Jean and self along beach, but no sign of anything. All 
shore lined with cobbles and comminuted shells. Very little 
kelp thrown up. 
George very angry with Torito (boy) who threw stone at 
his wife and stole rowlocks. He is called ‘Rana’ (frog), a 
term of reproach for bad mischievous boys. George’s wife 
comes and sits down on damp ground. Has made a one-piece 
dress for herself. 
Scraper, (i) Au-wi , (2) Hai-yij\ fire, bush-ait \ native celery, 
hu-shun ; George says only eat stalk when throat is bad, and 
then chew and expectorate it; eat roots, roasted in fire. They 
eat au-dtcha , nut of beech wood tree (big tree); Spanish 
name for this is rubillo\ they also eat Katern ,* a round yellow 
fungus growing on beeches higher up mountain. 
1 B, June 30, katern — deciduous beech, same name as ‘fruit*. In B, under 
May 21, the fungus is referred to Darwin, Voyage of the ‘ Beagle ’, ed. xii, 1894, p. 233, 
and to the Linnaean Transactions , vol. xix, p. 37, and a brief summary of Darwin’s 
account is given. 
There is one vegetable production deserving notice from its importance as an 
article of food to the Fuegians. It is a globular, bright-yellow fungus, which grows 
in vast numbers on the beech-trees. When young it is elastic and turgid, with a 
smooth surface; but when mature it shrinks, becomes tougher, and has its surface 
deeply pitted or honeycombed.... This fungus belongs to a new and curious genus ;* 
I found a second species on another species of beech in Chile; and Dr. Hooker 
informs me, that just lately a third species has been discovered on a third species of 
beech in Van Diemen’s Land. How singular is this relationship between parasitical 
fungi and the trees on which they grow, in distant parts of the world! In Tierra 
del Fuego the fungus in its tough and mature state is collected in large quantities 
by the women and children, and is eaten uncooked. It has a mucilaginous, slightly 
sweet taste, with a faint smell like that of a mushroom. With the exception of a few 
berries, chiefly of a dwarf arbutus, the natives eat no vegetable food beside this 
fungus. In New Zealand, before the introduction of the potato, the roots of the 
fern were largely consumed; at the present time, I believe Tierra de Fuego is the 
only country in the world where a cryptogamic plant affords a staple article of food. 
—Darwin, Journal of Researches ... during the Voyage ofH. MS. * Beagle' } cap. xi. 
A specimen of Nothofagus betuloides Oerst. with the sort of growth mentioned 
on p. 103 arrived with the Spencer collection, and has been identified and described 
* Described from my specimens, and notes by the Rev. J. M. Berkeley, in the 
Linnaean Transactions (vol. xix, p. 37) under the name of Cyttaria Daruoinii : the 
Chilean species is C. Berteroii. The genus is allied to Bulgaria.—Darwin’s note. 
