7^ Mr Greville on the Genus Erineum. 
touch upon nothing which is not clearly perceptible with the 
aid of a good microscope. 
This fungus is found only upon living leaves, on the under 
or upper surface of which, it forms rather broad and much de- 
pressed tufts, of various colours, sometimes in the form of dis- 
tinct spots, or so running together, as to cover a great part of 
the leaf. These patches^ under the microscope, appear to consist 
of a great number of short filaments, or rather tubes, of a sub- 
rigid, diaphanous, and somewhat succulent aspect^ of various 
forms, cylindrical, turbinate, subulate, clavate, &c. and often 
truncate at the summit. These tubes in some species seem to 
contain sporules in great abundance, as in E. aureum ; but in 
others they are entiiely wanting. Their nourishment appears 
to be derived from the juices of the parent-leaf, from the check 
they receive when the leaf is plucked before they are mature. 
Many species require some weeks to attain their full growth ; 
and in some, as E. acerinum^ there is a succession during the 
greater part of the summer. 
Erineum is situated in the sixth and last Class (Gymnocaiipi) 
of Persoon’s System of Fungi, betwixt the genera Dematium 
and Racodium. The character of the former is, Byssi ceesjpitosi 
aui ejfusi^ Jlla lasvia ; that of the latter, Byssus suhcompacta^ 
pannum r^erens. 
In the Synopsis EL Gall, by Lamarck and Be Candolle, Eri- 
neum is nearly at the end of the first division (fungi filamentosi ) 
of the first Tribe (Gymnocaepii), and connected with the ge- 
nera Conoplea and Stilhum. 
In the more recent work of Nees von Esenbeck, Erineum is 
found with Rubigo (Link), under a sub-section, entitled Byssi 
parasitici^ of which they form the only genera. Rubigo y in my 
opinion, cannot, on any reasonable grounds, be kept separate 
from Erineum. 1 have, therefore, along with most other bota- 
nists, continued to consider them as the same. 
None of the species of Erineum have hitherto been found on 
herbaceous plants ^ : indeed, so completely are they confined to 
* Erijieum articulatum^ Syn. FI. Gall. p. 15. said to grow on the dead stems of 
herbaceous plants, is Dematium articulatum of Persoon ; so entirely does it differ 
from Erineum, that it is surprising how it has been admitted into that genus. 
