The Canadian Tuckahoe

Abstract

During some eight years past there have been received and examined, from the wooded regions (principally poplar woods) of the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, a number of large fungous sclerotia, such as one finds'occasionally referred to in literature. Nearly all these references are sufficiently definite in showing that sclerotia similar to those under examination here have been frequently enough observed, but all records are as cautious as they are meager in supplying critical information relating to the classification of these sclerotia. Of the twenty and more specimens seen from time to time, it may be said that they agree in character, appearance and composition, and no doubt are all identical. They ranged from the size of a hen's egg to that of a cocoanut still within its fibrous covering. The largest specimen seen by us was an oval body and measured when fresh 22 inches by 33X2 inches in circumference; its weight was 8 lbs. 4 ozs. After several years' drying, this sclerotium was reduced in size to 20 inches by 29 inches, and in weight to 6 lbs. 13 ozs. On arrival and while still fresh, these masses bounce like a solid rubber ball, though not quite as readily. The exterior is coal black, not glossy but quite mat. They often contain a number of small stones; in one case one as large as a hen's egg was more than three quarters firmly embedded. Generally there were exhibited grooves resulting from enclosed roots, which in most cases, however, had rotted away. One of these grooves is plainly shown in the left-hand specimen of Plate 7. The external structure is not very definite, showing merely minute irregular fissures.