60 
FETCH : 
probably been described under another name. Until each 
aerial mycelium has been submitted to experiment it is 
scarcely possible to correlate them. 
The horse -hair blights of India and Ceylon have usually 
been attributed to Marasmius sarmentosus, a West Indian 
species which was described by Berkeley. Recently it has 
become customary to refer aerial mycelium of this t5rpe, even 
from the W’^est Indies, to Marasmius equicrinis, which is an 
Australian species collected by MueUer and described by 
Kalchbrenner. ^ 
Marasmius sarmmtosus was described as pileo hemi- 
spherico, subspadiceo, primum umbonato, dmse sericeo, margine 
involute, demum expanse ; stipite villo depresso vestito, demum 
glabrescente, eximie sarmentoso. Pilous 1-2*5 mm. broad, 
brown ; stalk thickened at the base, 20-22 cm. long, slender.” 
An examination of the Kew specimens shows that the myce- 
lium is brown, and densely hoary with minute adpressed 
hairs ; some of the specimens are bright brown, but it is 
possible that the colour may have been changed in preserva- 
tion. The pilei are on short lateral stalks, up to 1 cm. in 
length, and are densely radially fibrillose or shaggy. Berke- 
ley’s description is correct, except that the mycelium has been 
confused with the stalks. Included in the same cover is a 
specimen of mycelium sent by Hart from Jamaica in 1886 ; 
this is much thicker and more rigid, and resembles the 
mycelium of Marasmius ohscuratus ; it is certainly not M. 
sarmmtosus. There is also a Ceylon specimen (mycelium 
only), labelled M. sarmmtosus, from the herbarium of Baron 
von Mueller, which was collected by Thwaites ; this again is, 
as far as can be determined, the mycelium of Marasmius 
ohscuratus. 
Marasmius equicrinis was described by Kalchbrenner, 
under the name of M. crinis equi MuelL, in Grevillea, VIII., 
page 153, and again by Berkeley in Jour. Linn. Soc., XVIII., 
page 383. The description in the former is as follows : 
‘‘ Albido-fulvescens, minimus, Pileo raro, membranaceo, 
convexo, obtuso (1-2 mm. lato). Stipite (1 cm. et ultra longo), 
setaceo, rigido, atro, nitido, e mycelio atro, equi crinis similari, 
assurgente. Lamellæ paucæ, distantæ, pileo paUidiores. The 
