News and Notes 



223 



Mr. Petch is engaged in the very important task of redescrib- 

 ing the fungi of Ceylon, and he has met with many difficulties in 

 his work because of the different sets of types and the inadequate 

 descriptions based on them. He is of the opinion " that the only 

 possible way in which any definite knowledge can be evolved out 

 of the present chaos is that mycologists of each tropical country 

 should work out their species in a similar manner (by comparison 

 with types), and that when this is done they should interchange 

 specimens and colored drawings of at any rate their common 

 forms. But if the original collections were not returned to the 

 sender there is no possibility of ever arriving at a definite con- 

 clusion, and the existing records are merely so much waste paper. 

 Certainly the present practice of consigning Basidiomycetae to 

 Europe is a waste of time. The describers not only fail to 

 recognize a species : in many cases they do not hit upon the right 

 genus. The descriptions are unrecognizable, and the ' species ' 

 upon which they are founded are often only damaged or abnormal 

 forms of common things. The latter is especially the case when, 

 as so often happens at the present day, the actual collecting is 

 entrusted to coolies. The mycologist must collect his own speci- 

 mens and know them under all conditions." 



