306 FETCH : 



The same species was also sent by Gardner under another 

 number, without any note of its connection with termite nests, 

 and was given another name, Lepiota alhuminosa Berk. ; 

 while a third collection of the same was named Armillaria 

 eurkiza Berk. 



In a letter to Hagen , Nietner described the nest of a Ceylon 

 termite, said to be Tcrmes fatalis. He referred to the combs 

 as " nests," and stated : " These nests are always found to be 

 full of minute microscopic fungi, the finest and most beautiful 

 imaginable. The corpuscles, as large as a fine pin's head and 

 composed of small beads, grow in clusters on a network of 

 roots and young brood, all resembling crystals of ice or silver." 

 By " roots " he evidently meant hyphffi, and by " young 

 brood " the small, just developing spheres or" corpuscles." 



When Thwaites sent fungi to Berkeley about 1870, he 

 included the agaric which Gardner had collected, but without 

 any note as to habitat. On that occasion it was named 

 Collyhia sparsibarbis B. & Br. Berkeley noted its resemblance 

 to Armillaria etirhiza, but said that it differed in the absence 

 of a long root, the underground part of the stem having been 

 cut off. • 



Among the other specimens sent by Thwaites were two 

 gatherings, said to occur on the nests of termites when exposed 

 to the light. They were included among indeterminable 

 conidial forms of Xylaria. One of them is a conidial Xylaria, 

 while the other consists of aborted specimens of the develop- 

 ing agaric. 



It is curious that neither Thwaites nor Gardner sent the 

 minute white fungus which is so common on the termite comb. 

 At least it cannot be traced in the records of their consign- 

 ments. Berkck^y would most probably have attributed it 

 to Mgerita, but the only species of JiJgerita he recorded for 

 Coylon are JErjerila Candida P., the specimens of which grew 

 on wood, and JCgerita mellea B. & Br., which grow on lichens. 



India. 



hi the " Transactions of the Linnaan Society," XXIII. 

 (1802), p. f)l , Borkelcv recorded a sclerotium under the name 

 of Srlrrnlium stipila/vm Berk. & Curr., which had been found 



