II. NEW SPECIES OF EDIBLE PHILIPPINE FUNGI. 



By EDWIN BINGHAM COPELAXD, Ph. D., Botanist. 



It is still true of the Philippine Archipelago, as until within a 

 decade it was of the entire Orient from Ceylon to Japan and Aus- 

 tralia, that its fungus flora is a practically untouched field. From 

 the little work in it that has been possible for us, it appears that 

 our Agaricacece, at least, are almost entirely new to science as well 

 as locally unknown. It can also be safely said, contrary to a 

 rather prevalent opinion of the condition in tropical countries, that 

 our Basidiomycete flora is a very rich one, in species if not in 

 individuals. 



As to their edible properties, the writer has personally tested more 

 than 100 Philippine species, and can state with the confidence per- 

 sonal experience justifies that the species described here are without 

 exception palatable and harmless. In the individual descriptions 

 the statement as to taste and odor apply of course to the mushrooms 

 when raw and fresh. The diagnoses of these fungi were originally 

 written in Latin. However, it was thought inadvisable to have them 

 appear as a Government publication in this language; therefore the 

 following translation has been made, and the Latin diagnoses are 

 published in Annales Mycologici, volume 3, No. 1 : 



Lycoperdon todayense Copeland. Peridium obovate or pyriform, 1 

 to 2 cm. in height, 1 to 1.5 cm. in thickness, plicate at the base, entire 

 above, clothed when young with minute deciduous warts or flakes which 

 are hyaline when moist, later finely and obscurely areolate, white at first, 

 turning yellow, opening by a small aperture at the top; the fertile gleba 

 very distinct from the sterile, cellular base; spores globose, smooth, 3.5 

 to 4 /i in diameter; capillitium rudimentary, irregular, thick. 



Todaya, Davao, caespitose about the base of a Musa. 



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