COMPOSITAE. Brachyglottis repanda: Wellington, Ballance Reserve, 55 m. LAURACEAE. Beilschmiedia tawa: Wellington, Totara Reserve, Pohangina Valley, 80-120 m; Upper Pohangina River, 200 m; Ballance Reserve, 60 m.

Hymenophore annual, coriaceous, solitary, stipitate. Pilei infundibuliform or campanulate, sometimes split along one side when becoming flabelliform, 10-20 mm tall, 10-20 mm wide; pileus surface tan or chestnut, radiately sulcate, concolorous or with darker bands which are somewhat tomentose, with hairs more densely arranged above stems; hymenial surface when fertile grey, when sterile some shade of brown, scantily vertically creviced when old; margin thinning out, concolorous or lighter, dentate or often deeply incised. Stems to 10 x 2 mm, equal, bay, velutinate with prominent hairs, arising from well developed mycelial discs. Context white or isabelline, 0.25-0.4 mm thick, of radiately arranged parallel hyphae, with a coloured cortex bearing abhymenial hairs which may be brief or elongate, with rounded or moniliform apices and walls to 1 µm thick; skeletal hyphae to 4 µm diameter, lumena almost capillary; generative hyphae 3.5-4 µm diameter, walls 0.2 µm thick, with clamp connections. Gloeocystidia arising from the context beneath the subhymenium, sometimes extending parallel with the hymenium, subventricose or flexuous-cylindrical, often moniliform, not or slightly projecting, to 120 x 12 µm. Hymenial layer to 80 µm deep, a dense palisade of basidia, paraphyses, and gloeocystidia. Basidia subclavate, 20-30 x 5-6 µm, bearing 2-4 spores; sterigmata slender, erect, to 4 µm long. Paraphyses subclavate, 16-26 x 4-5 µm. Spores broadly elliptical, apiculate, 5-6 x 3.5-4 µm, walls smooth, hyaline, 0.2 µm thick.

DISTRIBUTION: North, South, and Central America, West Indies, New Zealand.

HABITAT: Solitary or gregarious on decayed decorticated wood lying upon the forest floor.

Collections listed agree with authentic specimens examined in Kew herbarium. In microfeatures the species resembles S. affine and S. elegans, differing in that gloeocystidia are of greater diameter and possess thicker walls (0.5-1 µm). Spores are of the same size and shape as those of S. elegans, but larger than those of S. surinamense. Pileus hairs are more strongly developed than in S. affine and S. elegans, although of similar shape and diameter. They occur in zones on the pileus surface and irregularly above the stem. The latter is strongly velutinate as in S. affine and arises from a mycelial disc. S. ravenelii Berk. & Curt. is similar, differing mainly in the glabrous pileus, which may be a variable condition. About 30 species of small stipitate Stereums have been described. Most examined in Kew herbarium appear to be forms of half a dozen basic species, having been erected on slight differences in shape, size, or colour of pilei, colour of the hymenium, or upon the nature of the substratum. They may be divided into two groups, upon whether hyphal systems are monomitic (S. pusiolum)or dimitic (S. afffine, S. elegans, S. pergamenum, S. surinamense, S. thozetii),and within these a few may be delimited by spore size. Separation of the others can be made only upon variable macrofeatures, consequently most will have to be suppressed when a large series of specimens is studied critically.

TYPE LOCALITY: Alabama, U.S.A.