MYRTACEAE. Leptospermum ericoides: Auckland, Huia, 20 m, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 4392.

Subiculum annual, membranous, white, loosely attached, to 160 µ. thick, effused forming small and sharply defined orbicular or linear areas 1-15 mm long, of closely intertwined hyphae. Pilei aggregated in groups of few (4-6) opening many (30-80) in scattered areas, seated in loculi, depressed globose, 250-600 µ diameter, opening tardily by a narrow naked pore; exterior covered with felted white tomentum, becoming naked, even, almost black; hymenial surface even, white or cream, concave; loculi filled with loosely intertwined freely branched hyphae bordered by a more compact intertwined zone. Context fuscous, to 70 µ thick, composed of parallel densely arranged hyphae pseudoparenchymatous in the base; generative hyphae 2-4 µ diameter, walls 0.25 µ thick, hyaline, fuscous near the periphery. Hymenial layer to 40 µ deep, a dense palisade of basidia and paraphyses. Basidia subclavate, 24-32 x 6-7 µ, bearing 4 spores; sterigmata slightly arcuate, to 6 µ long. Paraphyses subclavate, 18-26 x 5-6 µ. Spores oblong with rounded ends, apiculate, 7-9 x 5-6.5 µ, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.2 µ thick.

TYPE LOCALITY: Huia, Auckland.
DISTRIBUTION: New Zealand.

HABITAT: Crowded on bark of dead stems.

Pilei are crowded in groups in the felted subiculum. Each is embedded in a distinct locule, defined by a compact wall and filled with loosely intertwined hyphae. As pilei mature, the apical portion becomes partly denuded of tomentum, and ruptures by a narrow pore. Attached to the walls are densely arranged abhymenial hairs which are freely branched, almost dendrophytic, and encrusted with masses of crystals. They are ultimately shed near apices, but elsewhere remain, and serve to retain each pileus within its locule