312 



in .Singapore, to check tlic earlier detcrminatious or to determiue a 

 considerable amount of the material that is available in the Botanic 

 Gardens" Herbarium. It is nuavoida1)le, therefore, that many 

 specitic names are quoted separatel}' that are now established syno- 

 nyms. ;!s the only resource in the present case was to enter each 

 record, and leave anialtianiations and rcdnctions to a later work. 



; .Chving to the difficulty (if keepiuo- heifbaTJum specimens in the 

 trQ|>ic.s tlie..coJlectiotis made Itefore 1912 were- sent to Kew. and only 

 a small amount of named material was accumulated, therefore, for 

 comparison at Singa]x)re. Cryptogamic works of reference were 

 also few as it was not ])ossihle or advisable to purchase the standard 

 works on this subject which contain only the briefest and occasional 

 reference's to tlie fiuigi of this country, and which ari- now at a 

 Very high price. As access to them is only possible in the large 

 scientific libraries of Europe and America, the original intention 

 was to delay any treatise on the whole of the ]\ralayan Fungi until 

 a visit to Euro]»e should enable these shortcomings t(> be remedied. 



11. Our k-noided(/e of Malayan Fungi. 



Until some few years ago our knowledge of tropical fungi was 

 exceedingly small, and it was generally considered that the fleshy 

 and more evanescent ty])es were but poorly represented. This no 

 donl)t was due to the I'act that collectors brought back to Enro])e 

 only the harder aiul more durable kinds as they were unable to at- 

 tempt to ]jreser\e the others. More recent researches show that 

 these views were (piite incorrect. ^Yhilst the larger and harder 

 fungi such as the l'olyi)oraceae are everywhere in evidence it is 

 soon seen that there is an immense variety of the more perishable 

 kinds whose fructifications appear ])eriodically and last but a few 

 days. The only wa\ these can be adequately recorded is by coloured 

 sketches made from fresh material on the s]iot. An initial collec- 

 tion of such drawings has already been made at Singapore by De 

 Alwis and Mrs. Burkill. and it is hopeil that their ])ul)lication will 

 shortly be undertaken. 



The following paragraphs give a general re\iew of our present 

 kiiowledge of tli(> groups of Malavan fungi. 



AVork on the My.xomycetes is all recent. At the [jresent 

 moment Mr. .\. K. Sanderson is in*e))aring a monograiih on the 

 Malayan species and such as are cited in this work, therefore, are 

 only those that are re])resented at Singapore. In view of Mr. 

 Sanderson's entensivi' research it was felt better to leave the detailed 

 account of them for hL* coming ]mblication. The determinations 

 wiM'e made by ^liss (iulielma Lister to wliom our thaid<s are due, 

 and at Kew. 



Our knoAvledge of the I'hyeomycetes is at present very smiall, 

 entirely owing to lack of investigators in this branch. It is certain 

 that these fungi are abundant and also that they are of considerable 

 ecouonn'c imijoi'taiu-e. as the work already done on Phytophthora, 

 for instance, shows. At- the present moment there is but very little 

 (•om])leted work to he chronicled for tliis countrv. 



