HORSE -HAIR BLIGHTS. 
49 
sulcate ; the sulcæ correspond with the gills in number and 
position, and are usually five to seven. There is a small black 
point or umbo at the base of the umbilicus, and unexpanded 
specimens of about a millimetre in diameter are often sharply 
umbonate. The gills are white, then cream or yellowish, 
becoming brown in drying ; in large specimens they are 
comparatively broad, but narrowed behind, where they unite 
into a well-defined collar round the apex of the stem. In 
poorly developed specimens the gills are so far attenuated 
behind that this collar is not very evident, but it can always 
be demonstrated by cutting diametrical sections of the pileus. 
The spores are white in mass, narrow -oval and inequilateral, 
or clavate, 10-14 X 4 ^ ; contents granular. The pellicle of 
the pileus when magnified appears minutely roughened, and 
sections show that it is composed of elongated cells, echinulate, 
or rather nodular, with numerous close set, blunt spines at 
the outer ends. 
If the tangle be placed in a glass dish with sufficient water 
to moisten the lower twigs and leaves, the fructification may be 
developed, as a rule, within two or three weeks. In this case, 
owing to its development in a constantly saturated atmos- 
phere, the stalks are longer, 2-4 cm., and the pileus may 
attain a diameter of 8 mm. The pileus is somewhat thinner, 
paler in colour, varying from ochraceous to almost white, and 
it frequently becomes répand. In the case of a tangle taken 
direct from the tree to the laboratory the pilei developed in 
sixteen days, but on living tea branches, which were sent 
through the post, taking three days in transit, they did not 
develop until seventy -one days had elapsed. 
The fructification of this horse-hair blight is clearly a 
Marasmius, and, from a comparison with the specimens in 
the Kew Herbarium, it is Marasmius equicrinis Müll. The 
question of nomenclature will be dealt with subsequently. 
On searching during the wet season among the dead leaves 
and twigs beneath the nutmeg trees on which Marasmius 
equicrinis flourishes, one finds specimens exactly similar to 
those which develop on the tangle when it is placed in a glass 
dish and kept moist. As in the latter case, the gills are often 
so attenuated behind that the collar is not at first sight evident. 
6(6)X5 (7) 
