OF CERTAIN TERMITE NESTS. 237 



stoutest was 8 cms. high and 3 mm. in diameter. A month 

 later the stromata were counted, and in the process the comb 

 was broken up. Neglecting very thin hair-like growths, 

 there were three hundred and seventy stromata. The larger 

 were found to possess irregularly thickened bases corresponding 

 in structure to the usual sclerotium type, and L one case 

 the sclerotium retained the shape of the comb passage round 

 which it had been formed, being U-shaped in section with 

 the arms of the U one centimetre in length. 



Though the shape and size of these precluded the idea that 

 they were built into the comb by the termites, numerous fresh 

 combs were broken up to see whether there was any trace of 

 them, but nothing of the kind was found in fresh combs, nor 

 in dried combs which had been subjected to the same conditions 

 as the one described above. It seems quite evident that these 

 irregular sclerotia in the comb are developed during or after 

 the growth of the stromata, and from their absence from the 

 numerous cultivations which have been stopped at an earlier 

 stage, the latter supposition is most probable. 



The conidiophores of these stromata appeared to throw 

 doubt upon their classification as conidial forms of Xylaria, 

 and this doubt was not removed by any of the cultivations 

 already cited, nor was it possible until recently to obtain any 

 similar structures from termite combs in the nest. It was 

 however at last discovered that under favourable conditions 

 apparently two Xylarias grow from deserted termite combs, 

 the first to appear being Xylaria nigripes, Klotzsch, and the 

 second the one under consideration. 



Xylaria nigripes, Klotzsch, is a not uncommon fungus at 

 Peradeniya. but for a long time I was unable to find the 

 conidial form. All the specimens seen in 1905 bore peri- 

 thecia only, even in cases where they could not have been a 

 day old. These stromata are from 5-15 centimetres high, 

 with a sharply defined black stalk, 1 or 2 centimetres high 

 and about 3 millimetres in diameter, and an upper cylindrical 

 fertile portion, twice this diameter, at first brown, then 



