CEYLON FUNGI. 37 



reduction of his species to synonyms, after an examination of 

 the original specimens and drawings, and a comparison of 

 these with fresh specimens, introduces rather curious results. 

 For example, Berkeley "described" the same fungus three 

 times as Psalliota trachodes, Ps. pedilia, and Ps. poderes. 

 Saccardo leaves the first in Psalliota, but puts the other two in 

 Chitonia, while Hennings later leaves the first two in Psalliota 

 and Chitonia respectively, but institutes a new genus, Chito- 

 niella, for the third. Yet there is only one species ! In con- 

 nection with this name changing, it may be pointed out that, 

 even in accordance with the rules of botanical nomenclature, 

 it is hardly fair, when Berkeley wrote Agaricus {Lepiota) 

 ruhicatus B. & Br., to obtain an advertisement by writing 

 Lepiota rubicata. 



Konig's collections were made before the establishment of 

 a Botanical Garden in Ceylon, and they cannot now be local- 

 ized. Gardner practically collected only at Peradeniya and 

 Nuwara Eliya, and the greater part of Thwaites' specimens 

 are from the same localities : so that the " Fungi of Ceylon," 

 as compiled by Berkeley and Broome, represents Uttle more 

 than the fungus flora of the Peradeniya Gardens. 



During the time that Thwaites was amassing his collection 

 Beccari visited Cej^lon on his way to Borneo (1865). He 

 landed at Galle, and travelled along the beaten track to 

 Colombo, Kandy, and Nuwara Eliya, a route which had been 

 traversed by all his predecessors. The fungi which he collect- 

 ed on the way were described by Cesati in 1878. Apparently 

 he had not submitted even his Peradeniya specimens to 

 Thwaites, who was then collecting vigorously, for out of 

 eighty-eight species which he collected in Ceylon, fifty-two 

 have not been recorded by any one else, and twenty-six of 

 these are new. Nineteen species are definitely stated to have 

 been taken in the Peradeniya Gardens : of these, seven only 

 were found by Thwaites or Gardner, and of the remaining 

 twelve, six are new species : he only gathers one Clavaria in 

 the Gardens, and that, according to the description, is not our 

 common species. 



Since Thwaites' time work on Ceylon fungi has consisted 

 merely of repeated shuffles of his specimens : there have been 



