41 8 Petch. — Mocharas and the Genus Haematomyces . 
The genus Haematomyces , as originally described, consequently falls, 
for even if it should subsequently be demonstrated that Mocharas owes its 
origin to the action of a fungus, the exudation itself, which is the material 
on which the genus was founded, is not a fungus. The three species of 
Haematomyces since described bear no relation to the original species, if 
their descriptions can be relied upon. 
The simplest way out of the difficulty which thus arises would appear 
to be that the generic description of Haematomyces should be amended in 
accordance with the ideas which have been associated with the name by 
Peck, Rick, and mycologists in general ; and, though the writer is aware 
that he is venturing on very dangerous ground in classifying fungi from 
their descriptions only; the following is proposed : 
Haematomyces (Char, emend.). Stroma superficial, pulvinate, often 
cerebriform or convoluted, tremelloid or fleshy-waxy, bearing a palisade 
layer of asci and paraphyses over the whole exposed surface, immarginate : 
spores continuous, hyaline. 
The genus appears to be out of place in the Bulgarieae, and should 
probably be placed in the Helvellaceae. In many points it appears to be 
too close to Psilopezia , Berk. 
The following new species has recently been collected in Ceylon : 
Haematomyces carneus.w. sp. Pale purple-red to flesh colour, pulvinate, 
cerebriform, up to 1*5 cm. diameter, superficial, subtranslucent, tremelloid. 
Asci cylindric, 160 x 10-13 /x, not operculate, eight-spored, spores obliquely 
uniseriate. Paraphyses stout, inflated at the apex, diffluent. Spores 
hyaline, oval, thick walled, ends subtruncate, 15-^18 x 8-9 /x, exceptionally 
36x10 fj„ On dead wood, leaves, &c. Delwita, Ceylon, June 1918; 
No. 5767 in Herb. Peradeniya. The whole ascus stains blue with iodine, 
the spores and paraphyses staining yellow. 
Summary. 
1. Mocharas is an exudation from wounded or, more commonly, felled 
Bombax malabaricum. It is formed from a special layer of cortical 
parenchyma, and consists of the remains of cortical cells united by 
a slime. 
3. This substance was made the type of a new genus of fungi, 
Haematomyces , by Berkeley and Broome in 1873, the type species being 
named Haematomyces spadiceus. 
3. As the substance is not a fungus, Berkeley and Broome’s genus falls, 
but the name is here retained for those species which have been placed in 
the genus by subsequent authors. 
4. A new species of Haematomyces is described. 
