australia: south Australia, Lake Bonney, (holotype).

new zealand: north [.: auckland—Clevedon, E.E. Chamberlain, 3. iv. 1966, PDD 25153; Waitakere Range, Karekare, Zion Hill Track, B.S. Parris, 27. iv. 1971, PDD 25043; Auckland City, Epsom, Silver Rd, B.P. Segedin, 25. xi. 1977, PDD 59208; Kawau 1., collector unknown, 17 v 1978, PDD 59209; Waiti, near Kawakawa Bay, C. Barber, 6. ii. 1978, PDD 59210; Waitakere Range, Karekare, Zion Hill Track, G.M. Taylor, 1. vi. 1986, PDD 59211; I.e., P.K. Buchanam, 10. ii. 1987, PDD 48110; cultivated basidiome from same collection, PDD 59212; Piha, Winstone Track, P.K. Buchanam, 10. ii. 1987, PDD 48127; cultivated basidiome from same collection, PDD 59757; Piha, Home Track, B.P. Segedin, 20. iii. 1988, PDD 59213; Muriwai, Mitchelson Track, GM. Taylor, 18. ii. 1989, PDD 59214; Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Shakespear Heritage Trail, P.K.C. Austwick 30. xi. 1991, PDD 59215; coromandel—Te Kume, P. Fry, 2. vi. 1974, PDD 32358; WANGANUI—Operiki Pa, S. Davidson, 2. ii. 1966, PDD 25043; wellington— Muritai, Butterfly Creek, M. Curran, 12. ii. 1958, Stevenson 1246 (as P. ostreatus forma), K.

Basidia, cheilocystidia, and pleurocystidia as in the type. Trama and context monomitic; in sections of the context taken near the lamellae are found a few thick-walled, narrow hyphal endings. No oleiferous hyphae present. On the surface of the pileus is a layer of intermeshed hyphae of cells 5-6 X 25-40 µm, all with brownish, plasmatic pigment and many of them with brown, lightly encrusted walls. In some basidiomes (particularly those produced in culture) pilocystidia like the cheilocystidia can be found. Stipe tomentum variable in development, sometimes giving a strongly hirsute appearance. Constituent hyphae as in the holotype.

Holotype: Cooke (1886) described P. australis as 'P. fleshy, convex, smooth, umber (2-3 in.), stem somewhat lateral, short, thick, clad with white tomentum, solid (about an inch long and thick), gills broad, distant, decurrent, spores cylindric-elliptic, straight or curved, 16-18 X 4 µm.'

The exsiccatus shows a pileus 55 mm diameter, dark reddish brown, smooth, dry, fleshy; margin distinctly inrolled; lamellae decurrent, extending in shallow ridges down the stipe, broad (4-5 mm), distant, dark ochraceous; stipe short, 18 mm long by 5-15 mm wide, solid, pale ochraceous, with ridges from the decurrent lamellae in the upper half, faintly anastomosing, tomentose at the base.

Spores 10.5-14 X 4-6 (12.3 X 4.5) µm, Q = 2.7, hyaline, cylindrical, thin-walled, inamyloid, not dextrinoid, variable in size; basidia 30-45 X 7.5 µm, club-shaped, usually with four fairly stout sterigmata, but possibly occasionally also with two; cheilocystidia forming a broad band, arising from narrow, parallel, radiating hyphae, 16-25 X 5 µm, typically clavate, extended apically, or mucronate, with a small swelling at the apex, sometimes surrounded by a small globule of mucus, hyaline, thin-walled; pleurocystidia occasional, club-shaped, 20-30 X 2-6 µm, with 2 or 3 apical processes; sub-hymenium moderately wide (35 µm), filamentous; trama of hyaline, thin-walled, uniform generative hyphae 5-6 µm in diameter, approximately parallel in an undulating pattern, descending; context of hyaline, thin-walled generative hyphae, mostly 7.5 µm in diameter, forming a close network; clamp connections present on all hyphae; oleiferous hyphae absent. Pileipellis a mesh of slightly thick-walled, branching hyphae with yellowish pigment. Stipe tomentum made up of bundles of narrow, thin-walled, clamped, hair-like hyphae of varying lengths and 2-3 um in diameter.

australia—on roots of Leptospermum in S. Australia (holotype). new zealand—in indigenous forest, growing on the wood of Leptospermum scoparium J.R, & G. Forst, Kunzea ericoides (A. Rich.) Joy Thomps., Corynocarpus laevigatus J.R. & G. Forst. and Sophora microphylla Alton, occasionally on the ground from buried roots. The basidiomes may be solitary or in imbricate clusters. Corner (1981) did not name the host wood in Malaysia.

Collections Examined