i 
"i'. 
The Pseudo-sclerotia of Lentinus similis and 
Lentinus infundibuliformis. 
BY . 
T. FETCH, B.A, B.Sc. 
T N 1906, when visiting a rubber plantation {Hevea hrasi- 
liensis) in which several hundred trees had been felled 
about two years previously, my attention was arrested by a 
Lentinus v/hich grew under somewhat peculiar conditions on 
the tops of very many of the decaying stumps. Although 
the wood of Hevea hrasiliensis is comparatively soft, stumps of 
trees which were healthy when felled do not decay rapidly, 
but produce new shoots, which keep the roots, &c., alive for 
several years. The continual destruction of these new shoots, 
either by grazing animals or by man, is ultimately followed by 
the death of the stump, but the process is a lengthy one. 
In the present case the felled trees had been twelve years 
old, and their stumps, about a foot high, were about ten 
inches in diameter. The older wood in the centre of each 
stump was decayed, but the cortical tissues were healthy, 
practically to the original level, so that each stump top formed 
a basin which, in the wet weather then prevailing, was filled 
with a semi-liquid mud consisting chiefly of the residue of the 
decayed wood. In these basins, either floating or partly 
embedded in the mud, were masses of wood, from which arose 
the sporophores of the Lentinus. 
As will be seen from Plate I., these masses of wood are very 
variable in size and shape. Some are only about 2*5 cm. 
long, 2*5 cm. high, and 1 cm. thick; others measure up to 
16 X 9 X 8 cms. Some are definitely lenticular, with regular 
faces and a rounded edge ; . others are quite irregular. In 
general, a vertical face follows the vertical grain of the wood, 
though it does not necessarily follow one tangential plane. 
Annals of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, Vol. VI., Part I., Aug., 1915. 
6(6)15 (1) 
