34 FETCH : REVISIONS OF 



violent strain. Nothing in Berkeley and Broome's descrip- 

 tions fitted it, and the figures, being only in profile and longi- 

 tudinal section, could not be expected to reveal the gill 

 characters. Successive crops were gathered for more than a 

 year from the same stump, and the extent of its variation in 

 colour and form was fairly well determined, but still there 

 was no clue that it was one of Berkeley and Broome's species. 

 Now among their Ceylon species is one named Collyhia magis- 

 terium, so called because its spores " look like a magisterium." 

 As I had a vague idea that a magisterium was a piece of 

 chemical apparatus, I always passed over this description with 

 a resolve to examine these peculiar spores when I had time, 

 the more readily as I had nothing apparently to fit the des- 

 cription or figure of the species ; but on learning later that the 

 magisterium was really a " Philosopher's stone," I became so 

 eager to know what shape that might be that I examined the 

 herbarium specimens at once, hoping thereby to find a clue to 

 some efficient substitute for the once wide-spread pagoda 

 tree. The spores, except for the apiculus, were exactly 

 spherical, and the same large size (up to 20 /u) as in the species 

 I had been so long in doubt about. A further examination 

 of the herbarium specimens shows that there is no doubt as to 

 their identity ; the peculiar characters of the gills can still be 

 made out in the dry state if one knows what to look for. The 

 species was named at least three times, viz., Collyhia apalo- 

 sarca, Collyhia euphylla and Collyhia magisterium, though none 

 of the descriptions mentions any of the naked-eye characters 

 which make the species so distinct. Nothing is said about the 

 viscid character of the pileus ; one is erroneously said to be 

 striate to the centre ; another is said to have a hollow stalk ; 

 and the gills are misdescribed in all. The descriptions were 

 drawn up from the figures only, and the latter are not views 

 which would illustrate the distinctive characters. The result 

 supports the author who writes of " the curse of establishing 

 species from figures." In the case of Collyhia euphylla, we 

 have the specimen and drawing, Thwaites 1201, from which 



