REVISIONS OF CEYLON FUNGI. 275 



Under Lentinus similis at Kew are Thwaites 686 together 

 with Gardner 59. The latter was first labelled badius by 

 Berkeley, but subsequently changed by him to similis B. & Br. 

 Hence it appears that Berkeley discovered that his Pan-ws hadius 

 from the Phihppines was not the same as Lentinus hadius 

 from Ceylon, and altered the name on his herbarium specimens, 

 but those in the Hookerian Herbarium retained the name 

 under which they had been distributed. 



Under Lentinus blepharodes at Kew, one Ceylon sheet 

 bearing two specimens is labelled " Lentinus blepharodes 

 (B. & Br.) B. & C, Lentinus similis B. & Br., Ceylon, G. H. 

 K. T." ; another is marked " 94 Lentinus blepharodes B. & C, 

 Peradeniya, G. H. K. T., Nov., 1867 ; " while a third collec- 

 tion, consisting of two almost glabrous specimens, is labelled 

 " Lentinus blepharodes B. & C. 686. Lentinus similis B. & Br. , 

 Var. , Central Province , Ceylon." All these are identical with the 

 Ceylon specimens under Lentinus similis and Lentinus badius. 



Our Ceylon species is certainly not L. hadius. According 

 to the herbarium specimens it is not L. blepharodes, since the 

 latter has a velutinate stem, while the stem of the Cejdon 

 species bears a spongy coating. L. blepharodes appears to be 

 restricted to the Western hemisphere, but there is a specimen 

 in Herb. Kew, with a velutinate stem, from the Nilghiris. 

 As far as the three names considered are concerned, the 

 Ceylon species must be known as L. similis, and the records 

 of the other two species for Ceylon discarded. 



Lentinus similis is entirely amethyst or violet when young, 

 becoming pale brown to red-brown when old. The pileus is 

 up to 8 cm. in diameter, deeply infmidibuliform, edge decurved 

 or plane, regularly pUcatosulcate to the centre, coarsely 

 velvety with short close-set hairs which are often grouped into 

 tufts within the tube, margin regular and fimbriate. Total 

 height up to 14 cms. Stalk usually straight, tough, solid, 

 white internally, equal, expanded at the base, where it some- 

 times arises from a dense tuft of hyphse, clothed mth long 

 silky hyphse entangled in a spongy mass. GUIs decurrent, 

 their lower ends hidden in the covering of the stem, narrow, 

 rather crowded, edge entire ; the gills change from violet to 

 cream-coloured, and finally become brown. Spores white, 



