CEYLON FUNGI. , 23 



Another argument in favour of the accepted \aew that the 

 tougher fungi predominate is supposed to be found in the 

 large number of fungi of that class which have already been 

 recorded ; if the more perishable basidiomycetes are really in 

 the majority, there must be an enormous number of tliem. 

 This brings us at once to the conviction which forces itself on 

 everybody who attempts to interpret tropical fungi in the 

 light of these old descriptions ; the majority of them do not 

 represent distinct species, and do not describe anything as it 

 exists naturally. So impossible is it to fit our common fungi 

 to any of the descriptions, that in some cases the mycologist 

 in the Tropics utterly refuses to attempt the task of evolving 

 order out of the present chaos ; or, in the alternative, he 

 decides that everything is a new species. The mycologist who 

 accepts the old descriptions as correct will find ample opportu- 

 nity in any country he cares to visit in describing the mutations 

 which have been evolved during the last sixty years ! The 

 early descriptions were based on dried specimens : in many 

 cases these had been lying about in museums for fifty years ; 

 so that even if all were distinct species the descriptions, except 

 in a few instances, could not fail to be incorrect. But besides 

 this the describers had no idea of the changes of colour and 

 form which might occur in the forcing climates of the Tropics 

 during certain seasons of the year, and they have accordingly, 

 though quite correctly from their limited point of view, made 

 endless species out of mere forms of common things. And to 

 arrive at this conclusion we need postulate no more than. that 

 the fungi which spring from the same mycelium are the same 

 species. 



The fungi of Ceylon exhibit this multiphcation of descrip- 

 tions in a marked degree, though the work was done under 

 most favourable conditions ; the majority were collected and 

 provisionally sorted out by botanists of considerable experience 

 in mycology, and they were accompanied by hundreds of 

 accurate paintings. If under such circumstances the results 

 are in many cases worse than useless, what value is to be placed 



