REVISIONS OF CEYLON FUNGI. 377 



Common among grass and in flower beds at Peradeniya ; 

 often growing in rings. 



This common species was named Lepiota zeylanica by Berke- 

 ley on specimens sent by Gardner. When it was afterwards 

 sent by Thwaites, Berkeley did not at first recognize it, but 

 published a new description under the name Lepiota theloides in 

 a preliminary account of the Ceylon Fungi in the Transactions 

 of the Linnean Society, Vol. XXVII., p. 150. This mistake 

 was discovered before the pubUcation of the complete list of 

 Ceylon Fungi in the Journal of the Linnean Society, but the 

 matter was there further confused by the division of Thwaites' 

 No. 37 into L. zeylanica, L. suhdypeolaria, and L. ruhicata, 

 while two other collections of the same species (Thwaites' 701 , 

 780) were named L. inebriata. In addition, Thwaites' number 

 819 was said to be a small variety of L. inebriata, and Thwaites' 

 688 is the figure originally named L. theloides. We liave the 

 paintings of all these nmnbers ; 37 is represented with yellow 

 gills, while 688, 701, 780, 819 have white gills. Now the only 

 distinction which can be made between these forms lies in the 

 colour of the gills, but this character was not rehed on by 

 Berkeley and Broome. In the original descriptions, the colour 

 of tiie gills of zeylanica is not stated ; theloides and inebriata 

 are said to have white gills, while rubicata is said to have yellow 

 gills. But figure 37 which is named zeylanica in Berkelej^'s 

 handwriting has yellow gills, and 688 which is named theloides 

 has white gills, thougli the two names are, according to 

 Berkeley, synonyms. Further, although figure 37 is cited by 

 Berkeley and Broome as L. rvbicaia, it is marked by them 

 zeylanica. 



For the last three years I have endeavoured to separate one 

 of these " species " on the basis of the colour of the gills, but 

 I have been finally driven to believe that the difference in 

 colour is merely a weather effect. In very wet weather, 

 the gills are initially white, and then change rapidly (in less 

 than twenty-four hours) to the reddish tint which all these 

 " species " assume when decaying : with a smaller rainfall 

 they are white at first, then pale yellow, and finally reddish ; 

 while in drier weather, they remain white for two or three 

 days, and then turn reddish without any intermediate yellow 



