GASTEROMYCRT^ ZEYLANIC^. 69 



dead twigs. They are ovoid or turbinate, often laterally 

 compressed, up to 5 cm. broad, 3 cm. high, with a short, 

 obconic stalk ; usually irregularly lobed, sometimes umbili- 

 cate round the stalk, white or pale yellow, becoming 

 ochraceous, minutely scurfy or granular ; wall thin, sterile 

 base well developed. Capillitium threads yellow-brown, 

 somewhat rigid, 3 [k diameter, fairly regular. Spores oval, 

 3-5 X 2-5-4 jjL, or globose, 3 [l diameter, pale yellow-brown, 

 echinulate, pale olive in mass. When mature, the wall is 

 fragile and breaks away in small fragments. 



Bovista. 



Of the three species of Bovista recorded by Berkeley and 

 Broome in the Fungi of Ceylon, one, Bovista bicolor Lev., is 

 now known as Lanopila bicolor ; and another, Bovista 

 lilacina, is Lasiosiihaara Fenzlii ; the third, Bovista cervina, 

 is apparently an undescribed species. 



Bovista cervina Berk, was described from specimens brought 

 by Darwin from South America . A few years later Berkeley 

 enumerated the same species from Ceylon among a collection 

 sent by Gardner (Gardner No. 17). Massee" (Revision of the 

 Genus Bovista, Journal of Botany, 1888, p. 184) stated that 

 Bovista cervina occurred in Patagonia, Chili, Ceylon, and 

 New Zealand, and was identical with Bovista aspera Lev., 

 " as proved by examination of the type specimen in Herb. 

 Mus. Paris." He described the capillitium as flaccid, 

 unbranched, pale, and the spores globose, smooth, very pale 

 brown, minutely pedicellate, 5-6 \^ diameter, but his figures 

 of the spores show pedicels one and a half times the length 

 of the spore. 



In Mycological Notes, No. 25, p. 324, Lloyd writes con- 

 cerning Catastoma subterraneum : "It was brought from 

 Patagonia by Darwin, and called by Berkeley Bovista 

 cervina/' This fixes Berkeley's type specimen, but the 

 Ceylon species is not a Catastoma . 



The specimens of Gardner No. 1 7 in Herb. Kew are globose, 

 not more than 3 cm. diameter, with white cord -like mycelium. 

 The cortex persists in the form of minute, scattered, fiat, 

 adpressed. fibrillose jiatches. The capillitium is pale 



