186 FETCH : THE FUNGI 



for "' nurseries." Every chamber in the nest is an actual or 

 potential nursery, and there is no chamber without fungi 

 except the royal cell. 



In L847 Berkeley (2) described several species of fungi 

 which had been collected by Gardner in Ceylon, and among 

 them an agaric which he named Lentinus cartilayineus ; this 

 grew from termite nests, sometimes from a depth of four 

 feet. The record appears to have been overlooked by later 

 workers ; probably the association was regarded as purely 

 accidental, if indeed any one ever did consult these pioneer 

 lists. 



In 1875 Berkeley and Broome (4) published a further 

 account of Ceylon fungi based on a far larger collection made 

 by Thwaites in 1860, &c. Two of Thwaites' numbers, 176 

 and 554, labelled " On Termes' Nests " and " On White Ant 

 Nests " respectively, are grouped by Berkeley and Broome 

 with several others as " conidiiferous forms of unknown 

 species " of Xylaria, and are said to " occur on the nests 

 of termites when exposed to the light." This statement is 

 only true for No. 554. No. 176 bears no resemblance to 

 Xylaria, and occurs on combs in the nest. 



It is rather surprising to find that neither Gardner nor 

 Thwaites sent the actual fungus on the comb alluded 

 to by Smeathman : at least this cannot be traced in the 

 specimens or descriptions. Both of them must have 

 handled the termite comb to obtain the specimens already 

 referred to. 



These three records include all the forms that are at present 

 known to occur regularly on termite oombs : indeed, col- 

 lectively they are in advance of recent accounts, none of which 

 deals with all three structures. 



Of recent years the subject lias again attracted attention 



in lava and Ceylon. Penzig and Saccardo (5} in 1897 des- 



cribed a Xylaria from a termite comb in Java. Holtermann 



<• in Isfts figured an agaric grouting on a termite comb 



