Leptospermum, ericoides A. Rich. Auckland: Great King Island, Three Kings, January, 1952, E.E. Chamberlain. Pseudowintera colorata (Raoul) Dandy. Otago: Horse Shoe Bay, Stewart Island, February, 1954, J.M. Dingley, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 13660.

Hymenophore annual, membranous, adnate, effused forming small irregular colonies 1-4 x 0.5-2 cm; surface cream, even though at first often porose, not creviced; margin thinning out, arachnoid, white, adnate. Context white, 30-50 µ thick, basal layer of a few repent hyphae, intermediate layer of scanty mainly upright hyphae 4-5 µ diameter, walls 0.5 µ thick, hyaline, naked, branched, septate, often inflated between septa, with small inconspicuous clamp connexions. Hymenial layer to 20 µ deep, a loose palisade of basidia, paraphyses and cystidia. Basidia subclavate, 10-14 x 5-6 µ, 4-spored; sterigmata slender, upright, to 5 µ long. Paraphyses subclavate, 8-10 x 4 µ. Cystidia arising from the basal layer or subhymenium and projecting to 50 µ, cylindrical, 35-70 x 10-12 µ, naked, bases rounded, tapering to apices where each is capped with a crystalline body, to 8 µ diameter, resembling a minute parasol, with radiating ridges terminating in acute spines, walls thickened to 3 µ. Spores elliptical, sometimes flattened on one side, or obovate, apiculate, 5-6 x 3-3.5 µ, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.25 µ thick.

DISTRIBUTION. New Zealand.

HABITAT. Effused on bark or decorticated dead wood.

Hymenophorum annuum, membranaceum, adnatum, effusum; superficie cremea, aequa, non rimosa. Hyphae contextus fibulatae, 4-5 µ diam., nudae. Basidia subclavata, 10-14 x 5-6 µ, 4 sporis. Cystidia cylindricalia, eminentia, in apicem umbracullo crystallorum coniunctorum coronatum tectum fastigata, 35-70 x 6-12 µ, nuda. Sporae ellipticae vel obovatae, 5-6 x 3-3.5 µ, laeves, hyalinae.

Cystidia delimit the species. They project for the greater part of their length, are moderately thick-walled, taper from the bases, and bear upon the apices caps of fused crystals which resemble minute parasols. The exterior of each cap is ribbed and ribs terminate in acute down-pointed spines. But one other species with such a feature has been described-namely, P. hamata Jacks., which differs in the larger basidia and differently shaped spores. Stems of the cystidia are naked, and destroyed with potassium hydroxide though apical caps remain unaltered.

Otago: Horse Shoe Bay, Stewart Island, February, 1954, J.M. Dingley, type collection, P.D.D. herbarium, No. 13660.