408 FETCH : 



in diameter at the ground level, and 2 to 5-5 cms. in diameter 

 at tlie ends of the gills ; it is densely velvety witli brown or 

 blackish-brown, short tomentum, has a strongly cartilaginous 

 outer layer, and is white and spongy internally ; it is 3-5 to 

 12 cm. high ; the part below groimd is wliite, and either 

 glabrous or fibrillose. The gills are at first wliite, then cream 

 coloured, decurrent, not crowded, rather broad (up to 13 mm.), 

 attenuated outwards, sometimes slightly anastomosing ; the 

 tomentum of the stalk extends partly over the edges of the 

 giUs. The spores are white, broadly oval, 6-8 x 5-6 /*, or 

 globose, 6-7 /^ diameter. 



Small specimens of this species have the texture of Lentinus, 

 but in the larger examples the gills are somewhat brittle, and 

 the attenuated pileus is not so tough. The stalk is always of 

 the Lentinus type, and it has the Lentinus characters of 

 growing on dead wood, and of producing pilei along its margin 

 when the latter is wounded during expansion. It has been 

 suggested that it ought to be referred to Paxillus, but the giUs do 

 not separate from the pileus as in that genus, the margin is not 

 permanently inroUed, and the spores are undoubtedly white. 



48. — Merulius eurocephalus (B. & Br.) Fetch. 



Polyporus (Merisima) eurocephalus B. & Br., Fungi of Ceylon, 

 No. 451, Journ. Linn. Soc, XIV., p. 48. 



''Polyporus (Merisima) sulfur eus Fr.," in Berkeley and 

 Broome, Fungi of Ceylon, No. 450, Journ. Linn. Soc, XIV., 

 p. 48. 



Merulius similis B. & Br., Fungi of Ceylon, No. 536, Journ. 

 Linn. Soc, XIV., p. 58. 



This species is fairly common at Peradeniya in clumps of 

 living bamboos. The mycehum spreads through the mound 

 of soil at the base of the clumps in thick white strands up to 

 3 mm. in diameter, and emerges to form a white floccose sheet, 

 about 6 mm. thick, over the surface of the soil and the bases 

 of the bamboo culms. The hymenium is produced on any 

 part of the horizontal sheet and is then the Merulius similis 

 of Thwaites' collection ; this is white at first, with a swollen 

 margin, everywhere tomentose, then pale yellow, finally pro- 

 ducing ochraceous patches which bear irregular shallow pores, 



