10 
FETCH : 
found in which they were lacking. In the larger remnants of 
the wood it was not possible to detect any action of the 
fungus on the cells, and as far as could be decided without 
a comparison with sound wood of the same species, the wood 
filled with P achy ma hyphæ was quite normal. But where 
small wedges of wood remained between large masses of 
Pachyma, a destruction of the cell wall had evidently taken 
place ; these walls were quite thin, the discoloured thickened 
membrane having almost quite disappeared. The fungus 
destroyed the inner thickening layer of the ceU wall, and only 
the middle lamella remained. 
Fischer describes the action of Pachyma cocos on the wood 
as follows. The hyphæ enter the root tissue as normal 
hyphæ, and spread through the wood and the cortex. There 
they are modified, being changed by the deposition of reserve 
food into highly refractive, irregular, coralloid bodies, whose 
shape is determined by the size of the cells in which they 
happen to lie. The walls of the cells are attacked by the 
fungus, the thickening layers being first consumed, and finally 
the middle lamella, so that ultimately a mass of almost, or 
quite, pure fungus tissue is left in the place of the wood. 
It would appear that in the case of Lentinus similis we 
have a process similar to that described above, but the action 
does not proceed so far. The cells of the wood are filled with 
thickened coralloid hyphæ, and the walls of the cells are 
partly consumed, but the destruction does not proceed to 
such an extent that the whole of the wood is replaced by 
fungus hyphæ. 
Lentinus infundibuliformis B. & Br. 
A somewhat similar pseudo -sole rotium is formed by another 
common Ceylon Lentinus, L. infundibuliformis B. & Br. In 
this case the decayed wood may weather away leaving a 
compact body, but more usually there is a considerable mass 
of partly decayed wood outside the reddish limiting layer 
of the pseudo-sclerotium. In general, therefore, it is not so 
definite as that of L. similis, but often has the appearance of 
merely a piece of decayed wood. These pieces, however, 
persist, after the bulk of the log attacked has decayed, and 
