REVISIONS OF CEYLON EUNGI. 437 



elongated, hexagonal in section, 0-5 mm. diameter, 1-5 mm. 

 high ; ostiola usually not projecting. Spores dark brown, 

 broadly cymbiform, or f usoid-elliptic , inequilateral, 25-35 

 X 14-16 f^. Asci not seen. 



The herbarium specimens are merely fragments of a large 

 stroma ; some pieces are smooth, others minutely papillate, 

 either shining or dull black ; the spores agree with the descrip- 

 tion given above. This is a common and striking species 

 in upcountry jungles, but I have not yet been able to find 

 specimens young enough to show the asci. 



69.— Pithomyces flavus B. & Br. 



Pithomyces flavtis B. & Br., Fungi of Ceylon, No. 900, 

 Joum. Linn. Soc, XIV. (1875), p. 100, Tab. 4, Fig. 18. 



Neomichelia melaxantha Penz. & Sacc, Diagnoses Fungo rum 

 Novorum in insula Java collectorum, series tertia (1902), p. 46 ; 

 Icones Fungorum Javanicorum, Tab. LXX., 1. 



This species was made the type of a new genus by Berkeley 

 and Broome. Their generic diagnosis is " Flocci erecti, 

 granulati, in massam flavam tenuem congest! ; sporae matursB 

 quinqueseptatse doliiformes." Under the name of the species 

 they merely add that it grows on some monocotyledon, forms 

 little yeUow or olive-yellow thin soft patches, and has 

 spores 37*5 fj- long, 25 ^ wide in the middle. They give figures 

 showing a somewhat imaginary spinulose hypha, three- and 

 five-septate dark, spinulose spores, and two specimens of 

 the entire fungus. One of the latter appears to show three 

 perithecia, but these really represent three prominences in the 

 substratum, over which the fungus has grown. The species is 

 fairly weU recognizable from the figure and the meagre descrip- 

 tion, and the type specimen in the Peradeniya herbarium 

 places the present identification of recent specimens beyond 

 doubt. 



The fungus grows in thin, irregular, usually angular, often 

 branched, ejBfused, yeUow or greenish-yellow, superficial 

 patches. These are sometimes 1 cm. long and 5 mm. broad, 

 but most of them do not exceed half that size ; the thickness 

 of the patch is not more than 0-1 mm. When old the 

 patches are olive-yeUow. The basal layer consists of creeping, 



7(12)09 (57) 



