  Seven of ten candidate H-alpha emission-line stars found in an objective
grism survey of a 1 square degree region in MBM 18, were observed
spectroscopically. Four of these have weak H-alpha emission, and 6 out of 7
have spectral types M1-M4V. One star is of type F7-G1V, and has H-alpha in
absorption. The spectra of three of the M-stars may show an absorption line of
LiI, although none of these is an unambiguous detection. For the six M-stars a
good fit is obtained with pre-main-sequence isochrones indicating ages between
7.5 and 15Myr. The molecular cloud mass, derived from the integrated 12CO(1-0)
emission, is 160Mo (for a distance of 120pc), much smaller than the virial mass
(10^3Mo), and the cloud is not gravitationally bound. Nor are the individual
clumps we identified through a clump-finding routine. Considering the relative
weakness or absence of the H-alpha emission, the absence of other emission
lines, and the lack of clear LiI absorption, the targets are not T Tauri stars.
With ages between 7.5 and 15Myr they are old enough to explain the lack of
lithium in their spectra. Based on the derived distances (60-250pc), some of
the stars may lie inside the molecular cloud (120-150pc). From the fact that
the cloud as a whole, as well as the individual clumps, are not gravitationally
bound, in combination with the ages of the stars we conclude that it is not
likely that (these) stars were formed in MBM 18.
