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on work wliich is based only on a collection of dried specimens ? 

 The " description " seldom describes the fungus. The species 

 which when dried retain their form and colour, e.gr,, Polystictus 

 sanguineus, Fr., are so few in number, that they do not alter 

 the general conclusion. Indeed the constant occurrence of 

 P. sanguineus and P. xanthopus in tropical collections strength- 

 ens the view that other species should also be common to all 

 tropical countries. 



Ceylon appears to have been out of the track of the earlier 

 fungus collectors, probably because its flowering plants had 

 to a large extent been collected before botanists turned their 

 attention to fungi. Fries' Epicrisis (1836-38) gives only one 

 Ceylon record, though there may be others happily buried in 

 his frequent phrase " in India orientah." The species recorded 

 is Fomes levissimus, Fr. , and Saccardo adds that it was collected 

 by Wahlenberg ; this addition is probably erroneous, as there 

 is no record that Wahlenberg visited Ceylon, and his other 

 specimens were gathered in South Africa. In any case it 

 has not been collected since, either m Ceylon or elsewhere. 



In 1777, 1780, and 1781, J. G. Konig collected in Ceylon, 

 and included a few fungi in his collection. These remained 

 undescribed until 1842, when Berkeley published a " Notice 

 of Fungi in the British Museum" {Ann. Nat. Hist. X., 1842). 

 and described fourteen Ceylon species. Part of Konig's 

 collection apparently reached Paris, for Leveille in 1844 

 (Champigi^ons Exotiques. Ann. Sci. Nat. Ser. 3. Tom. 2) 

 referred to two of his specimens, and in 1846 (" Descriptions 

 des Champignons de I'herbier du Museum du Paris," Ann. 

 Sci. Nat. Ser. 3. T. 5), described two new species from it. 

 Altogether we know of sixteen species which were collected by 

 Konig ; whether his collection included other species I have 

 at present no means of ascertaining, as I have not got Berke- 

 ley's paper. These species are chiefly Polypori, probably 

 picked up haphazard ; yet not one of the sixteen has been 

 recorded again from Ceylon. The only species re-identified up 

 to the present is Xylaria eschuroidea , Berk.; and it is found 



