44 PETCH : REVISIONS Oli 



altogether after the publication of Berkeley and Broome's 

 list. Yet he was sufficiently aware of the importance of 

 following up their work to stipulate that the drawings and 

 specimens should be returned to Ceylon, and he knew too 

 much about fungi, and travelled too widely over the Island, 

 to imagine that he had collected everything. The sudden 

 cessation of all mycological work suggests that he realized the 

 value of what had been published. It is to be regretted that 

 he has left practically no comments on Berkeley and Broome's 

 work : notes of dissent are attached to a few specimens, but 

 that is all. Possibly he found the work of annotating the 

 whole list too great a task to be undertaken at an advanced 

 age. 



In a review of a previous paper on " The Fungi of 

 Termite Nests." in which it was necessary to reduce to 

 synonyms six names, the reviewer remarks : " Auf die von 

 den verschiedenen Autoren gegebenen und vielf ach von einander 

 abweichenden Beschreibungen ist kein Gewicht zu legen. 

 wenn man den Umstand beiiicksichtigt. dass der Pilz infolge 

 seines unterirdischen Wachstums sowohl in Form und Grosse 

 sehr variiert." I fear that in the majority of cases this 

 flattering unction must be withheld. The plain fact is that a 

 mycologist is not able to describe a dried agaric Avith anj^ 

 measureable degree of accuracy. Moreover, when he comes 

 to deal with tropical species he denies them even the limited 

 amount of variation whicli he grants in the case of temperate 

 forms. Every minute difference is considered specific. A 

 Lentinus m wet weather has a smooth whitish pileus, and is 

 named exilis : with dirainisliing rainfall it has a scaly pileus, 

 and becomes creiaceus : some specimens retain the livid 

 colour of the immature form, and are separated ai.s multiformis : 

 and the arrested fructification with gills just developing is 

 named velatus. Are there no examples of a fungus with a 

 variable, smooth or scaly, pileus in temperate regions, and is 

 it necessary to bestow a name on obviously immature speci- 

 mens ? Again, another Lentinus is at first violet, and then 

 changes to yellow, and yet another changes from violet to 

 dark brown : but the describer of dried specimens makes at 

 least two species of each, and puts them in different genera. 



