ARALIACEAE. Meryta sinclairii: Auckland, Mt. Eden, 100 m. Neopanax arboreum: Auckland, Cascade Kauri Park, Waitakere Ranges, 250 m; Anawhata Road, Waitakere Ranges, 300 m. Taranaki, Veronica Track, Mt. Egmont, 1,200 m. Wellington, Mt. Tongariro, 700 m. CONIFERAE. Agathis australis: Auckland, Waipoua Kauri Forest, 200 m; Upper Piha Valley, 300 m; Cascade Kauri Park, Waitakere Ranges, 250 m; Stony Creek, Henderson Valley, 200 m. Pinus radiata: Wellington, Weraroa, 25 m. CORIARIACEAE. Coriaria arborea: Auckland, Waiomu Valley, Thames, 60 m. CUNONIACEAE. Weinmannia racemosa: Auckland, Mamaku Forest, 600 m. Weinmannia silvicola: Waipoua Kauri Forest, 120 m. FAGACEAE. Nothofagus cliffortioides: Auckland, Waitetoki, Lake Taupo, 450 m. Wellington, Blyth Track, Ohakune, 700 m. Nelson, Lake Rotoiti, 700 m. Nothofagus fusca: Nelson, Totara Flat, 120 m. Nothofagus truncata: Auckland, Little Barrier Island. Quercus robur: Victoria, Creswick. LAURACEAE. Beilschmiedia tawa: Auckland, Lake Okataina, 500 m. Wellington, Weraroa, 25 m. MIMOSACEAE. Albizzia lophantha: Auckland, Three Kings, 60 m; Oratia, 25 m. Oxylobium callystachys: Auckland, Campbells Bay, 85 m. MONIMIACEAE. Hedycarya arborea: Auckland, Te Moehau, Coromandel Peninsula, 200 m. MYRSINACEAE. Myrsine salicina: Auckland, Anawhata Road, Waitakere Ranges, 300 m. MYRTACEAE. Eucalyptus globulus: Wellington, Waverley, 120 m. Leptospermum scoparium: Auckland, Little Barrier Island; Te Moehau, Coromandel Peninsula, 250 m. PANDANACEAE. Freycinetia banksii: Auckland, Kauaeranga Valley, Thames, 35 m. PAPILIONACEAE. Cytisus scoparius: Auckland, Waitetoki, Lake Taupo, 450 m. PIPERACEAE. Macropiper excelsum: Wellington, Lake Papaitonga, 20 m. PITTOSPORACEAE. Pittosporum tenuifolium: Auckland, Spragues Hill, Waitakere Ranges, 200 m; Ruatewhenua, Waitakere Ranges, 300 m; Huia, 30 m; Whitianga Road, Coromandel Peninsula, 450 m. PROTEACEAE. Hakea saligna: Auckland, Swanson, 200 m. Knightia excelsa: Auckland, Anawhata Road, Waitakere Ranges, 300 m; Upper Piha Valley, 300 m; Claudelands Reserve, Hamilton, 40 m. ROSACEAE. Prunus persica: Auckland, Mangere, 10 m. Pyrus malus: Auckland, Oratia, 20 m. RUBIACEAE. Coprosma polymorpha: Otago, Portobello, 10 m. Coprosma robusta: Auckland, Moumoukai Valley, Hunua Ranges, 300 m. SALICACEAE. Salix fragilis: Auckland, Mt. Albert, 60 m; Waikaretu, 160 m. SAXIFRAGACEAE. Carpodetus serratus: Auckland, Moumoukai Valley, Hunua Ranges, 300 m. VERBENACEAE. Vitex lucens: Auckland, Cornwallis, 20 m. UNKNOWN HOSTS. South Australia, Kuitpo; Beaumont, Adelaide; Kalangadoo; Pt. Hoarburgh; Mt. Lofty; Encounter Bay; West Stirling. New South Wales, Sydney; Bullahdelah; Milsom Island; Neutral Bay; Wangan 6 Kurrajong Mts. Tasmania, Mt. Wellington; Port Arthur. Victoria, Gippsland. Western Australia, Donnybrook.

Hymenophore pileate, annual, membranous, effused-reflexed, often resupinate, at first developing as small orbicular colonies merging to form linear areas which may extent to 40 x 4 cm. Pilei laterally extended and narrowly applanate, sometimes imbricate; surface grey or fawn, abhymenial hairs radiately arranged and sometimes concentrically zoned, often imbricated; hymenial surface ranging in colour from cream through buff or ochre to dark umber, often violaceous, heliotrope, or tinted purple, at first even or finely tuberculate, becoming deeply areolately creviced, tending to lift at margins of crevices; margin when resupinate thinning out, fibrillose, concolorous, adherent. Context dingy white, 0.2-1 mm thick, without a cortex, of parallel hyphae and an intermediate layer of ascending hyphae, loosely arranged and embedding metuloid pedicels; generative hyphae 4-6 µm diameter, walls 0.5-1 µm thick, naked, without clamp connections. Metuloids borne on long slender pedicels, extending to the hymenial layer, some projecting to 35 µm and scattered through the context, narrowly fusiform with acute apices, tinted fuscous, 40-190 x 8-16 µm, encrusted with hyaline or tinted crystals which may cover the modified body or be confined to its apical region, occasionally in part encrusted with brown mucilage granules; pedicels of unusual length, some 600 µm long, 5-7 µm diameter, some lightly tinted beneath metuloids. Hymenial layer to 60 µm deep, a loose palisade of basidia, paraphyses, and metuloids. Basidia subclavate, 20-24 x 5-6 µm, bearing 4 spores; sterigmata slender, erect, to 6 µm long. Paraphyses subclavate or cylindrical, 12-18 x 4-5 µm. Spores elliptical, 5-7 x 2.5-3 µm, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.2 µm thick.

DISTRIBUTION: North and South America, Western Europe, Africa, Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand.

HABITAT: Dead bark and decorticated wood.

In a former paper (1956a, p. 625) I employed the combination Lopharia vinosa under the impression that Berkeley's name Thelephora vinosa was the first applied to the species, overlooking that Persoon had earlier (1801, p. 578) used this name for a different plant. Lentz (1955, p. 20) used Laxitextum crassum for the species, deriving the specific name from Thelephora crassa Lev., part of the type of which, ex herb. Bresadola, from Tourane, Cochin China, was in the herbarium of National Fungus Collections of the United States Department of Agriculture. The species varies appreciably in the degree of pileus formation, thickness of context, surface colour, size and abundance of metuloids, length of pedicels, and coarseness of crystals. Most collections are resupinate, or exhibit broad resupinate fructifications with narrow reflexed margins; in others pilei are freely developed and often imbricately arranged. The context may vary in thickness and in old specimens exhibit vaguely defined zones of metuloids and context hyphae. Colour of mature plants may be some shade of brown, umber predominating, or as frequently violaceous, heliotrope, or purple, Australasian collections being rich in brightly coloured specimens. At first white, colour rapidly changes to some shade of brown, or violaceous shades may appear as soon as colour changes begin. Resupinate forms may be separated from species of Peniophora by the tinted metuloids borne on unusually long pedicels which, being aseptate, simulate skeletal hyphae although the species has a monomitic hyphal system. Pedicels ascend obliquely and are sometimes tinted beneath the metuloids. Their length would appear to be governed by development of the context, in thick plants pedicels attaining a maximum length of 600 µm. Occasional crystals are also tinted; they may be abundant or scanty, coarse or fine, and may encrust metuloids completely, be confined to their apical regions, or appear as scattered granules upon their surfaces. Bridging hyphae have been noted in the context.

TYPE LOCALITY: Cochin China.