114 PETCH : 



In recent gatherings of this species, the perithecia are 

 about 0"35 mm. diameter, with a pruinose wall, and are 

 furnished at first with white, conical, erect fascicles of hyphse, 

 up to 100 [I. high, scattered over the surface. These processes 

 are deciduous, and none can be found on the old herbarium 

 specimens at Peradeniya. The perithecia are brownish -red 

 and subtranslucent at first, but become ochraceous and 

 opaque when old. The perithecial wall has an inner layer of 

 large cells, which, in general, is obscured by a small-celled 

 pruinose layer, but in some gatherings the outer layer is only 

 feebly developed. The basal hyphse are usually weakly 

 developed, and in some examples barely evident. The spores 

 measure 10-12 X 5 jjt, and are not thick-walled. 



As this species does not appear to have been named, it may 

 be kno\vn as Nectria confluens. Nectria leucotricha Penz. and 

 Sacc. has spores, l(y-20 x 4-5 jjl. 



Nectria pulcherrima B. & Br. 



This species was described by Berkeley and Broome in 

 Fungi of Ceylon, No. 1021, as "' Csespitosa : peritheciis lentis 

 furfuraceis coccineis ostiolo papillseformi ; sporidiis biseriatis 

 fusiformibus quadruiucleatis." The type specimen was 

 Thwaites 1102, which was another part of the miscellaneous 

 gathering Thwaites 29. In Herb. Peradeniya, Thwaites 

 1102 contains Nectria pulcherrima and Nectria striatospora 

 Zimm. 



The perithecia are usually clustered on an erumpent stroma, 

 in pulvinate groups up to 3 mm. diameter. A rhizomorphic 

 mycelium, similar to that of Sphserostilbe repens, but thinner, 

 permeates the bark of the host plant in thin strands or sheets. 

 The perithecia are globose, 0*5 mm. diameter, with a conical 

 ostiolum ; at first they appear orange red, the wall being red, 

 or brownish-red, thickly covered with irregular, yellow, 

 pulvinate masses, with the ostiolum darker, but when old they 

 become dark red and almost glabrous. The amount of the 

 yellow covering varies ; in the t3rpe specimen the perithecia 

 are thickly encrusted, but in the cotype in Herb. Peradeniya 

 the perithecia are darker, and sometimes merely pruinose. 



