CEYLON FUNGI. ' 65 



Thwaites' specimens, some of which are in the Peradeniya 

 herbarium, were collected at Hakgala, elevation 5,600 feet. 

 I have recently received fresh specimens from the same 

 locality, where it grows on dead branches of Cinnamomum 

 camphora still attached to the living tree. It seems probable 

 that the fungus is parasitic. These specimens agree in all 

 respects with those collected forty years ago. 



The fungus bursts through the cortex of the undecayed 

 twigs as a minute white cushion which slowly acquires a 

 spherical form. In the earlier stages it is surrounded by erect 

 scales of the outer bark in the form of an irregular, deeply- 

 divided cup : these break away as the fructification expands. 

 When the sphere is about 3 millimetres in diameter it 

 appears white or brownish white : this colour is due to an 

 outer coating of minute adherent scales, and under slight 

 magnification the underlying tissue, as seen between the 

 scales, has a watery translucent appearance. When dry the 

 whole is white, but in the growing state it is a gelatinous 

 sphere covered with minute white scales. A median section 

 of the young sphere shows that it is multilocular. In the 

 centre is a group of chambers , usually five or six in cross 

 section, filled with spores : these chambers are irregularly 

 hexagonal in section, and vary from -5 x -4 mm. to '75 x -6 

 mm. This group is surrounded by other chambers which do 

 not contain spores : these latter form a single layer of large 

 chambers, about '75 mm. across, in the upper part of the 

 sphere, and a double layer of smaller chambers at its 

 base. These outer chambers contain thick-walled hyphse, 

 4-5 /i in diameter, whose walls are gelatinized so that the 

 translucent mass completely fills the chamber. The outer 

 wall of the sphere and the walls which separate the 

 chambers are about 50 ju thick. Under a low magnification, 

 the cross section shows a central white patch surrounded 

 by a broad translucent ring with a somewhat crena.te 

 outer edge : across this ring, the white side walls of the outer 

 chambers join on to the central white patch hke the spokes 

 of a wheel. 



Dehiscence takes place at the apex. If the branch is not 

 horizontal, it occurs at the highest point, and the resulting 



7(8)07 (8) 



