THE PHALLOIDE^ OP CEYLON. 149 



it, may be said that the cap may be white, pale yellow, or 

 orange ; the stalk may be white, yellow, orange, or pink ; and 

 the net may be white, yellow, orange, orange-red, phik, or 

 salmon. Examples occur with all possible combinations of 

 these colours, without any structural differences which would 

 warrant their separation as species. 



The Ceylon specimens named by Berkeley and Broome 

 were called D. dcemonum : one drawing shows a white stalk, 

 a yellow cap, and a reddish pink net : another is labelled 

 " veil bright orange." In structure they are typical phalloidea. 



Moller's specimens of D. phalloidea were pure white, and he 

 called his solitary coloured specimen callichroa. Berkeley 

 founded D. multicolor on a specimen from Australia , which had 

 a bright yellow stalk, a lemon-yellow veil, and an orange-red 

 pileus : the net was poorly developed, but except for this it 

 does not differ from phalloidea. Penzig records the same 

 species from Java, and says it can be at once distinguished by 

 the orange net : the only structural difference mentioned is 

 the occurence of small branches running from the bands into 

 the meshes of the reticulations on the cap, but this occurs also 

 in some Ceylon specimens of phalloidea. Penzig's figures 

 would pass for small specimens of phalloidea with a poorly 

 developed net. Lloyd states that Penzig found it abundant : 

 Penzig says not very common. In some of the Ceylon speci- 

 mens the mycelium and volva are white, in others they are 

 violet, or the top of the unopened egg is purple : and there 

 seems to be some correlation between the presence of colour 

 in the volva and mycelium, and its absence from the mature 

 fructification. Moller found coloured mycelium but white 

 mature forms : in Ceylon we usually find white mycelium and 

 highly coloured fructifications. Similarly, Dictyophora irpicina, 

 which is always white, has the top of the egg purple, or some- 

 times almost black. 



It seems impossible to maintain species on colour. In 

 Ceylon, one is certain after gathering fifty sjjecimens that he 

 has phalloidea, multicolor, and callichroa : by the time he has 

 seen one hundred this belief is considerably shaken : and 

 further experience forces him to the conclusion that there is 

 only one species. Nor is it possible to separate forms on such 



