HypocreaceaB Zeylanicse. 



BY 



T. FETCH, B.A., B.Sc. 



T N the Fungi of Ceylon Berkeley and Broome enumerated 

 -'- 54 species of Hypocreaceas. Cesati added 5 species from 

 Beccari's collection, and Cooke described severa) Ceylon 

 species which he found in Berkeley's herbarium. Some of 

 Berkeley and Broome's species of Nedria have been re- 

 described by von Hohnel, who has added new species which 

 were overlooked or misnamed by them, but in general the 

 Ceylon specimens of this family have not been critically re- 

 examined. The present contribution deals more especially 

 with the old Thwaites's specimens, no special collecting in 

 this group having been done. The total number of recorded 

 species is consequently comparatively small, and further 

 collecting may be expected to add to it considerably. 



Saccardo's subdivisions of the genus Nedria have been 

 adopted, in the absence of any more satisfactory scheme of 

 classification. The division of the genus into stromatic and 

 non-stromatic forms would appear to be inapplicable in the 

 case of tropical species. Nedria bicolor, for example, has 

 tjrpically a well-developed stroma, but in some gatherings 

 the perithecia are scattered, without any stroma ; and 

 Nedria flavolanata may be stromatic or not in the same 

 gathering. It may be noted that conidial stromata, of the 

 type of that of Nedria cinnabarina, seem to be rare in Ceylon ; 

 in the cases in which the conidial stage is known it is muce- 

 dinous, an effused weft of hyphae and conidiophores. This, 

 again, precludes the adoption of a classification based on the 

 character referred to above, if the term " stroma " is extended 

 to cover any basal weft of hyphse, for such a stroma may be 

 present or not according to the substratum on which the 



Annals of tlie Royal Botanic Gardens, Peracleuiya, Vol. VII., Part II., May, 1920. 



