CEYLON FUNGI. 
173 
the sheath it forms a white sterile stroma, which encloses the 
tissues of the shoot, and at the mouth of the sheath this 
gives rise to an external fertile stroma. The fertile stroma is 
honey-coloured, dotted with brown, translucent ostiola ; it is 
flattened pulvinate (flattened in a plane parallel to the stem 
of the host), and measures up to 3 mm. in length, 2 mm. in 
breadth, and 1 mm. in thickness ; internally it is pale brown. 
The perithecia are flask-shaped, totally immersed, and 
crowded in a distinct peripheral zone ; they have rather 
thick walls, and are up to 0*5 mm. deep and 0*15 mm. in 
diameter. The asci are cylindric., 250-300 X 5-6 capped, 
the cap being furnished with a central pore. The spores are 
filiform, as long as the ascus, and septate. 
This species has the same structure as Balansia, but its 
stroma is light -coloured ; it must therefore be included in 
Balansiella P. Henn., as Balansiella pulvinula (B. & Br.). 
129. — Epichloë cinerea B. & Br. 
This was described by Berkeley and Broome as “ Cylindrica, 
cinerea : sporis longis filiformibus. On Eragrostis nutans'’ 
The CO -type in Herb. Peradeniya contains five inflorescences 
of the grass. In each of these the branches and spikelets are 
bound into a cylindrical mass by mycelium, which does not, 
however, spread over the exterior. There are indications 
which appear to show that there may have been a continuous 
thin white covering originally, but if so, it has disappeared. 
At various points this pseudostroma has produced perithecii- 
gerous areas. These fertile parts are about 0*3 mm. thick ; 
they may be elongated-oval, several on one inflorescence, or 
they may run nearly the whole length of the inflorescence. 
In one case an inflorescence bears a fertile stroma 6 cm. long 
and 1*5 mm. broad on one side, and two others each about 
1 cm. long and 1 mm. broad, in the same straight line, on 
the other side. 
The stromata are now blackish-brown, dotted with black 
ostiola, and about 0*3 mm. thick ; the margin is somewhat 
abrupt. The stroma consists of very little more than a 
layer of perithecia crowded together ; the perithecia are 
roughly oblong or cuboid in section, and measure about 
6(10)16 (23) 
