390 . FETCH : 



or actually on roads and footpaths. It generally occurs in 

 large numbers, frequently- covering an area three or four feet 

 in diameter. The pileus is at first conico-campanulate with 

 an acute apex, but expands until it is almost plane with an 

 acute umbo. In colour it is livid gray when moist, becoming 

 darker towards the umbo ; when dry it is dirty white. Young 

 examples are slightly silky and striate, while fully developed 

 specimens may be radially streaked owmg to the splitting of 

 the surface layer. The margin is irregular and at first inc urved ; 

 in old specimens it is sometimes reflexed. The flesh is thin, 

 and the pileus frequently splits to the centre. When fully 

 expanded it measures 1 • 75 to 5 cm. in diameter. The stalk is 

 white, longitudinally striate, slightly bulbous and tomentose at 

 the base, solid, 3-5 mm. thick and 2* 5-3" 5 cm. high. The gills 

 are rather thick, white, ventricose, forked, with an irregularly 

 lobed edge ; they may be adnexed and separating, or free. 

 The spores are 5-7 X 3-4 ^, elliptic, with a sublateral apiculus, 

 pink, with a yellowish tinge. A figure of this species has been 

 published in the Annals of Peradeniya, Vol. III., plate 17a. 



The peculiar mj-celium of this agaric has been previously 

 described in this Journal (Vol. III., pp. 252-254). It consists of 

 masses of spheres, bound together by fine hyphse which run from 

 each sphere to all others in contact with it. These masses are 

 in many cases roughly spherical, or elongated and cylindrical, 

 only a few millimetres in diameter, and occur scattered through 

 the surface layers of the soil ; but they frequently take the 

 form of thin flat cakes, which lie parallel to the surface at a 

 depth of one or two centimetres. In extreme cases these 

 cakes may attain a length of 15 cm. with a breadth of 6 cm., 

 and, as a rule, several of them are produced in close proximity. 

 The total amount of mycelium underlying a troop of Entoloma 

 microcarpvm is much greater than would be expected from the 

 size of the agaric. 



The individual spheres are 0*4 to 0"7 mm. in diameter. 

 They Ho in compact masses, without any particles of wood or 

 dead leaves, &c., among them. The interior of a sphere is a 

 tangle of interlacing hyphaj without any definite arrangement. 

 These hj-pha; are swollen here and there mto irregularly oval 

 cells. j)rnflnpofl ^iimly or in a chain. Some (^f the hyphdf> 



