REVISIONS OF CEYLON FUNGI. 381 



26. — Lepiota leprica B. & Br. 



A. (Lepiota) lepricus B. & Br., Fungi of Ceylon, No. 68, 

 Journ. Linn. Soc, XL, p. 513. 



A. [Lepiota) pyrrhaes B.. & Br, in Herb. Perad. Icones 

 1163.* 



Pile us 0'8 to 5' 3 cm. diameter, broadly campanulate, then 

 expanded and margin repand, obtusely umbonate ; centre 

 smooth, dark red-brown, sometimes spUt into closely arranged 

 red-brown scales, elsewhere covered with flat red-brown scales, 

 arranged more or less concentrically ; in some cases the scales 

 are fibrillose ; white or pinkish and silky between the scales ; 

 margin sometimes appendiculate, not striate ; flesh white, 

 becoming reddish or pink, rather thick. 



Stalk 1'5 to 5 cm. high, 1 to 5 mm. diameter, base slightly 

 bulbous, almost equal, red below, white above at first, 

 becoming pink when old, fibrillose and sometimes covered 

 with red-brown scales below, silky and shining above the ring, 

 hollow, lined with white fibrils ; flesh reddish, especially 

 towards the base. Ring small, evanescent, usually reddish 

 beneath. 



Gills white, ventricose, free but close to the stem, rounded 

 at either end, rather distant. Spores white, oval, 4-6 X 

 2-5-3/x. 



On the ground among decaying leaves, &c. 



This species was included under Lepiota phlydanodes by 

 Thwaites, but it is much smaller than the latter, and differs, 

 inter alia, in the shape of the warts. Another gathering of 

 the same species was included by Berkeley and Broome under 

 L. pyrrJiaes, with the note that it differed from that species in 

 being " more strongly umbonate, the stem more scaly, the 

 gills narrower, paler, and not so ventricose or rounded behind." 

 It can be immediately separated from L. pyrrhaes by its white, 

 not coffee coloured, gills, and the general pink tinge as 

 contrasted with the orange-red colouration of the last-named. 

 Berkeley and Broome state that the spores are " ninepin 

 shaped," 12" 5 /^ long, but in the specimens in the Peradeniya 

 herbarium the spores are oval, 4-6 X 3 /j. 



Lepiota microspila B. & Br. is represented by a painting in 

 the Peradeniya collection, but the name was not published in 



7(12)09 " (50) 



