DISCOID FUNGI— DISCOMYCETES 187 



have been overlooked, so that the catalogues of Fungi from 

 the tropics are always to be suspected as very incomplete in 

 their enumeration of the Ascomycetes, except in a few in- 

 stances where a competent resident has superintended the 

 investigation. Hence a comparison of the species recorded from 

 such places with those found in Europe is hardly just to the 

 tropics, and would not, at present, offer a fair estimate of 

 geographical distribution. Out of a total of about 1200 species 

 collected in Ceylon by Dr. Thwaites there were fifty discoid 

 Fungi and upwards of 200 Sphaeriacei. This is a much larger 

 proportion than usual, but in neither case can it be regarded 

 as exhaustive. Taking the whole estimate of described 

 Hymenomycetal Fungi at 9000, those of the Discoid Fungi, 

 for all the world, are upwards of one-third of that number, 

 and of Sphaeriacei two-thirds more ; so that the proportion for 

 Ceylon, with 700 Hymenomycetes, would have been some 

 230 Discomycetes and upwards of 450 Sphaeriacei. Hence 

 to bring up the proportion to the universal ratio there should 

 have been nearly five times as many Discomycetes, and more 

 than twice as many Pyrenomycetes, found in Ceylon. If this 

 does not indicate that the Discoid Fungi are one-fifth less in 

 number in the tropics than in an universal total, then the 

 only conclusion remaining is that the list of Ceylon Discomy- 

 cetes is still incomplete, and yet Ceylon has been one of the 

 most favoured localities in having Dr. Thwaites as a resident. 

 In other tropical countries there is a still greater disparity, so 

 that it would be premature to draw inferences of geographical 

 distribution based upon present knowledge. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Saccakdo, P. A. "Sylloge Disoomycetum, " in Sylloge Fungorwm, vol. iii. 



Padua, 1889. 

 Phillips, W. A Manual of British Discomycetes. Sm. 8vo. Plates. London, 



1887. 

 Cooke, M. C. Mycographia. vol. i. "Discomycetes." Col. plates. Imp. 8vo. 



London, 1879. 

 Booties, E. "Memoire sur les Ascoboles." Ann. des Sci. Nat., 5th series, 



vol. x. Paris, 1869. 

 De Notakis, G. Proposte di Alcune Rettificazioni al Profilo dei Discomiceti. 



Imp. 8vo. Genoa, 1864. 



