Page:The Boy Travellers in Australasia.djvu/268

244 "I thought it would be new to you," their informant continued. "It is a fungus that grows in considerable quantities on the decaying forest trees; it is sent exclusively to China, where it is highly prized both as a medicine and an article of food, and it is said to be the base of a valuable dye. The export of this fungus began about 1870 or '71; in 1873 we sent about ten thousand dollars' worth of it to China, and ten years later nearly ten times as much. There is an abundance of it, and as fast as one crop is taken from a log a new one starts; so that there seems to be no reasonable limit to the business which may grow out of it."

Frank asked if the stuff was good to eat.

"I never heard of any one trying to eat it here," was the reply,