162 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



eaten raw, as I have myself seen, by the poor people on account 

 of the large amount of nutritious material stored therein by 

 the mycelium of the fungus*; but in the present case the 

 pure fungus itself is apparently eaten, and after some ela- 

 borate preparation, as I am informed by Mr. Wroughton, to whom 

 I am much indebted for the kind trouble he has taken in sending 

 me specimens. I first received a small specimen of the fungus from 

 Dr. Cunningham, F.R.S., in August, to whom it had been sent, 

 through Mr. Cotes of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, by Mr. Wrough- 

 ton. This had been gathered at Poona, but as the specimen was 

 insufficient in many respects for any useful description I addressed 

 Mr. Wroughton, begging him to send me other specimens, and for 

 any general information he might be able to gather concerning it. 

 To this he responded most generously, and all the information this 

 paper contains, other than the more diagnostic characters of the 

 fungus, is his. 



There was at first some doubt concerning the botanical identity of 

 the host, but Mr. Wroughton has convinced himself that it is un- 

 doubtedly Acacia churnca, Willd, and known to natives as Murmuti. 

 In certain areas of the Poona district the fungus is most common, 

 every tree or bush being covered with it ; and it occasions such dis- 

 tortion and dwarfing of the host that attacked trees may be recog- 

 nised from a great distance. The parasite appears to distort the 

 stem much as the mistletoe does the stem on which it grows. As 

 Mr. Wroughton says, " it is fortunate that A. cburnea is of no value 

 as a timber tree," as otherwise the presence of the parasite would 

 undoubtedly give rise to much loss. 



The specimens I received showed, even on cursory inspection, that 

 the parasite had a generally pervading and probably perennial 

 mjxelium, and that the presence of this mycelium caused an excess 

 of longitudinal growth in shoots, with very considerable hypertrophy 

 or thickening. Dr. G. King, F.Pt.S., writes of specimens he received : — 

 "It is curious to notice how the capitate heads of the Acacia become 

 elongated when attacked by that curious fungoid growth.* * * 

 Anybody examining such diseased heads and not seeing the healthy 



* Sc. Memoirs by Medical Officers of the Army of India, Part II,, 1886. 



