Dracophyllum subulatum Hook.f. Wellington: Pangarara River, Mt. Tongariro, 3,500ft, December 1946, E.M.Smith, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 7447; same locality, 4,000ft, January 1955, G.H.C.; Desert Road, Mt. Tongariro, 2,900ft, August 1955, September 1956, G.H.C.

Hymenophore pileate, coriaceous, annual, adnate, consisting of narrow linear resupinate areas from which arise effused-reflexed pilei on one or commonly both lateral margins, or wholly resupinate, at first orbicular and 0.2^-0.5 mm across, soon merging to form linear areas 1-15 x 0.2-1.5 cm. Pilei 3-8 mm wide, surface dingy grey to fuscus, or black when old, with concolorous or lighter margins, scantily strigose, tufts imbricate and often confined to marginal areas, becoming naked; hymenial surface bright tan, fawn, or ferruginous, deeply radiately creviced in small areas about 10 mm across; margins thinning out, lighter in colour and hirsute in resupinate plants, concolorous and commonly lobed in pileate forms, free. Context golden yellow, to 250 µ thick, composed of an intermediate tissue of radiate parallel hyphae bordered by two colour zones, that beneath the subhymenium pallid brown, of mainly parallel hyphae, the cortex reddish-brown, of compact, cemented, thick-walled hyphae; hyphal system dimitic; skeletal hyphae 3.5-4.5 µ diameter, walls 0.5 µ thick, golden yellow, sparsely branched and septate; generative hyphae to 3 µ diameter, walls 0.2 µ thick, hyaline, freely branched and septate. Setal layer to 130 µ deep, of two or three overlapping rows of setae arising from the subhymenium; setae projecting to 50 µ, subulate with broad bases sometimes curved, and bluntly acuminate apices, 65-95 x 10-16 µ, walls to 4 µ thick, verruculose, bright reddish-brown, with relatively wide lumina. Hymenial layer to 50 µ deep, a close palisade of basidia and paraphyses. Basidia subclavate, 12-25 x 4-5 µ, 4-spored; sterigmata arcuate, slender, to 6 µ long. Paraphyses subclavate, same diameter, but slightly shorter than the basidia. Spores alIantoid, apiculate, 5-6.5 x 1.5-2 µ, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.2 µ thick.

DISTRIBUTION: New Zealand.

HABITAT: On bark of dead stems and twigs associated with a white rot.

Pileata, annua, coriacea. Pilei effuso-reflexi, ex partibus linearibus resupinatis orti; superficie cineracea vel fusca, raro strigosa, deinde nuda; margine lacerato, concolori. Superficies hymenii alutacea, hinnulea vel ferruginea, radiatim rimosa, margine lobato, concolori. Contextus hypharum parallelarum, luteus, compactus; cortex adest. Hypharum systema dimiticum. Setarum stratum 2-3 ordinibus, subulatis, verruculosis, 65-95 x 10-16 µ, partim superimpositis, ad 50 µ eminentibus. Basidia subclavata, 12-25 x 4-5 µ, 4 sporis allantoidibus, 5-6.5 x 1.5-2 µ.

Specific features are the effused-reflexed fructifications forming narrow linear areas on twigs and stems; pallid colour of the hymenial surface, dark usually naked exterior surface of the pileus, prominent colour zones, 2-3 rows of obese setae which are often distorted and with relatively wide lumina, and allantoid spores. Crevices upon the hymenial surface, present in all collections, resemble those of resupinate forms of H. tabacina. The subhymenial colour zone varies appreciably in thickness, is often interrupted and may form branches which traverse the context. The species appears to be confined to one host, and so far has been collected only in a small area on the eastern slopes of Mt. Tongariro, near the Desert Road.
Though resembling H. tabacina in many microfeatures, the species differs in that setae are less crowded, appear in fewer rows, are shorter, broader, and with wide lumina; in macrofeatures they are quite dissimilar.

Dracophyllum subulatum Hook.f. Wellington: Pangarara River, Mt. Tongariro, 3,500ft, December 1946, E.M.Smith, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 7447