BEVLSIONS OF CEYLON FUNGI. 293 



diiferis stilbiformibus (no. 83 bis). On Trichia. Sporidia 

 •006 long, -0005 wide ; conidia -0003- -0004 long. It is verj- 

 interesting to ascertain that Stilbum tomentosum Sehrad. is 

 merely a conidiophore of a Hyphomyces {sic) parasitic on 

 TrichicB.'' The measurements are in inches. The Trichia 

 (Thwaites 83) is Hemitrichia serpula Rost. 



Saccardo (Sylloge Fungorum, II., p. 475) placed this species 

 in a subgenus of Hypomyces, which he named Berkeklla. 

 Subsequently (Sylloge, IX., p. 989) he created a new genus 

 Berkelella, in which he placed Hypomyces caledonicus Pat., 

 which has four-septate spores, and Hypomyces stilhiger B. & 

 Br. The genus is characterized as " Perithecia Hypomycetis, 

 sporidia fusoidea vel oblonga 3-pluriseptata, subhyahna." 

 This is wider than the subgenus Berkelella, which had simply 

 " sporidiis pluriseptatis." 



Berkeley's note appears to have been overlooked. It is 

 clear that he supposed that the conidial stage of Hypomyces 

 stilbiger was identical with Stilbum tomentosum Sehrad., or in 

 other words that he had succeeded in finding the ascigerous 

 stage of the latter. Whether that is true or not obviously 

 depends upon whether the Stilbum parasitic on Trichia in 

 Ceylon is identical with that parasitic on Triohia in Europe. 



In the Transactions of the British Mycological Society for 

 1902 (pp. 25-26) Miss A. L. Smith has traced the history of 

 the name Stilbum tomentosum, and has shown that in all the 

 descriptions the spores are said to be globose. Specimens 

 from Hampshire (England) and Devonshire (England) were 

 found to have globose spores, but a specimen from Egham in 

 Surrey (England) , in all other respects identical with Stilbum 

 tomentosum, had oval spores up to 5x2 [x. On examining the 

 specimens of Stilbum tomentosum in the Herbarium of the 

 British Museum, Miss Smith found a specimen from Ceylon in 

 the Broome collection, the spores of which had been drawn 

 and measured by Broome ; they are figured as oval in form 

 and 5 ^. long. (It ma^y be noted here that this does not agree 

 with the measurements published by Berkeley and Broome.) 

 Miss Smith considers that the difference between the spores 

 of the two kinds of Stilbum amounts almost to a specific 

 distinction, but that the plants are otherwise so much alike 



