CEYLON FUNGI. 39 



. present chaos is that the mycologists of each tropical country 

 should work out their species in a similar manner, and that 

 when this has been done they should interchange specimens 

 and coloured drawings of at any rate their common forms. 

 But if the original collections were not returned to the sender 

 there is no possibility of ever arriving at a definite conclusion, 

 and the existing records are merely so much waste paper. 

 Certainly the present practice of consigning basidiomycetes 

 to Europe is a waste of time. The describers not only fail to 

 recognize a species : in many cases they do not hit upon the 

 right genus. The descriptions are unrecognizable, and the 

 " species " on which they are founded are often only damaged 

 or abnormal forms of common things. The latter is especially 

 the case when, as so often happens even at the present day, 

 the actual collecting is entrusted to coohes. The mycologist 

 must collect his own specimens and know them under all 

 conditions. 



It may be urged that the conclusions arrived at only hold 

 good for basidiomycetes, and that the work which has been 

 done on tropical pyrenomycetes, for example, represents 

 substantial progress. Those who hold this opinion would 

 change it if they had to examine these fungi on the spot. 

 This group, parasite or saprophytic, is predominant in disease 

 investigations, and it is remarkably difficult to collect speci- 

 mens which show the characters of the ripe fungus. As a rule, 

 specimens must be kept under cultivation before ripe spores 

 are obtained : the natural production of ripe spores appears 

 to be a very transitory process. Are we to expect that the 

 species collected at random by collectors who have no oppor- 

 tunity of revisiting a locahty will in all cases be in a fit con- 

 dition for an exact determination ? Cesati remarks, re 

 Beccari's discomycetes : " Paucissimi fungiUi ex hoc ordine 

 extantes in collectione Beccariana vix tute determinandi, 

 quia eorum fructificatio omnino deest vel nimis saltem se 

 exhibet imperfectam," and this is true of most collections of 

 this class made at the present day. Xylaria nigripes affords 

 an instance of this condition in the Pyrenomycetes : the ascus 

 form, which is yellowish gray, may be watched for weeks, 

 but all specimens examined contain immature spores until 



