THE PHALLOIDE^ OF CEYLON. 153 



The rather pale olive spore mass penetrates between the 

 processes. The smell is rather like that of sour paste, not 

 at all offensive. 



The mycelium is white, or slightly violet, or pinkish : the 

 "' egg " is brownish or purple, sometimes almost black in the 

 upper half. All the colouring matter of the fungus seems to 

 have accumulated in the wall of the egg. 



But the most striking feature of D. irpicina is its damaged 

 unfinished appearance. Compared with the regularly sym- 

 metrical D. phalloidea, it is a thing of shreds and patches. 

 The cap is frequently interrupted on one side by a broad verti- 

 cal fissure (sometimes 1 cm. wide) which extends to the apex ; 

 sometimes it is not united to the stalk at the apex, but remains 

 behind in the volva as the stalk expands, or adheres to the 

 expanded net. In such cases the free edges of the cap show 

 that it has not been broken : they thin away gradually, and 

 the apparently broken edges are bordered by a narrow band 

 of white tissue without any gleba or lamellae. In the case of 

 the vertical fissure, part of the cap has failed to develop : and 

 when the cap remains in the volva, the stalk and cap have 

 developed separately, as Fischer states, but the apical con- 

 necting tissue is wanting. The cap may be broadly campanu- 

 late, and placed obliquely across the apex of the stem : when 

 it is fully formed and in its proper position it is often laterally 

 compressed : the opening which should be apical is frequently 

 on one side at some distance from the apex : the white mem- 

 brane which covers the deliquescent gleba and ought to 

 disappear at maturity persists for a long time over the head, 

 and in many cases there is no spore mass beneath it. The pale 

 olive colour of the head is due to the almost total absence of 

 the deliquesced gleba, and in some instances the head is white. 

 When proper deliquescence does occur it is often confined to 

 one side : but in the more usual case there is only a thin olive 

 covering over and between the membraneous processes. Some- 

 times part of the jelly which should remain in the volva adheres 

 in a large mass to one side of the cap and is carried up with it. 



The stalk is often laterally compressed, and it usually 

 retains its chambered structure up to the apex, instead of 

 becoming membraneous there as in D. phalloidea. The net is 



7(6)08 (20) 



