44 
FETCH : 
Hevea trees, where it grows on the outer dead bark, but this 
is an exceptional case, and it has not been known to climb up 
to the leaves from that position. 
When the leaves die they adhere to the mycelium until 
they decay and disintegrate, and consequently there is 
produced a tangled mass of leaves and mycelium, with some- 
times twigs also, suspended in the bush or tree. The mycelium, 
however, does not appear to be parasitic. 
In India what is apparently this species is said to be 
common in the jungle, especially on Terminalia tomentosa 
Bedd., and to spread thence to tea bushes. It is quite common 
. in low-country jungles in Ceylon, where, with the white 
“ thread blight,” it grows on the bushy undergrowth. It has 
not been found on cacao in Ceylon, as M. sarmentosus has in 
the West Indies, and this is somewhat surprising, since the 
conditions in a cacao plantation are such as favour its growth ; 
but, on the other hand, cacao in Ceylon is grown chiefly at 
medium elevations, not in the moist low -country, where horse- 
hair blight flourishes most luxuriantly. In the Royal Botanic 
Gardens, Peradeniya, it occurs with ‘‘ thread blight ” on 
nutmeg trees {Myristica fragrans Houtt.), but it does not 
spread far. In the damp low-country jungles it spreads 
freely from bush to bush, e.g., in the jungle at Henaratgoda 
(elevation 33 feet, rainfall 107 inches per annum). 
Cultivated tea forms a low bush about 75 centimetres high, 
and the bushes are planted so close together that their branches 
meet ; but though the ground is sometimes hidden, the vege- 
tation is not high enough to retain a permanently moist 
atmosphere. Probably for that reason the mycelium on 
tea is usually confined to the main branches in the centre of 
the bush. This is the case in the Kelani Valley district, in 
which it is most prevalent, though in the jungle surrounding 
the tea it runs freely over the bushes, as at Henaratgoda. 
Further inland, at an elevation of 400 to 500 feet, and with a 
rainfall of 80 to 90 inches per annum, it has been found to 
spread similarly over the tops of tea bushes ; but in this case 
the tea was shaded by interplanted Hevea, and the conditions 
more nearly approach those of the jungle than did those in 
the other tea fields in which it has been observed. I have no 
