8 Transactions. 



sometimes almost blood-red, polished, shining : tubes 1-1-5 cm. 

 long, pores minute, whitish, then cinnamon ; stem very variable 

 in length, irregularly wrinkled, coloured and polished like the 

 pileus ; spores 7 x 5 yu,, tinged brown. 



On trunks, &c. Northern Island, New Zealand. Common 

 in all tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions. 



Very variable in size and form ; the stem is sometimes al- 

 most or even quite central. The lacquered appearance of the 

 pileus and stem is due to the exudation of a thick glutinous 

 liquid which covers the surface, where it soon dries, giving to 

 the surface a perfectly smooth and polished aspect. 



II. Sessile, attached hy a broad hose. 



Fomes igniarius, Fries, Syst. Myc. i, p. 375 ; Fl. N.Z., ii, p. 179 ; 

 Hdbk. N.Z. Flora, p. 608; Sacc, Syll. vi, no. 5412; Cooke, 

 Austr. Fung., p. 131. 



Pileus at first irregularly globose, even, with a delicate 

 brownish nap clothing the surface, then becoming hoof-shaped, 

 rust-colour, changing to opaque dingy-brown, cuticle very hard, 

 uneven, 6-18 cm. across ; margin blunt, paler ; flesh ferru- 

 ginous, zoned, very hard ; tubes 2-5 cm. long, very small, 

 stratose, cinnamon, filled with white mycelium when old, general 

 surface of hymenium convex ; pores -|— ^ mm. across, rounded, 

 at first hoary ; spores subglobose, hyaline, 6-7 fx diameter ; 

 cystidia scanty, 10-25 x 5-6 /x. 



On trunks of various trees, living and dead. Bay of Islands, 

 Northern Island, New Zealand. Victoria, Queensland, New 

 South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, 

 Ceylon, India, Siberia, Europe, United States. 



Sometimes very large, thick, and in section more or less 

 triangular, hence hoof-shaped. Allied to Fomes fomentarins, 

 difEering in being a perennial plant, yery hard cuticle and flesh, 

 and in the hyaline spores. A destructive wound-parasite, at- 

 tacking many different species of trees, dissolving and destroy- 

 ing the heart-wood. 



Fomes australis, Fries, Hym. Eur., p. 536 ; Hbdk. N.Z. Flora, 

 p. 608 ; Sacc, Syll. vi, no. 5394 ; Austr. Fung., p. 130. 



Normally bracket-shaped, sessile, dimidiate, concentrically 

 zoned or irregularly wavy or tuberculose, glabrous, dark-brown, 

 external crust exceedingly hard, 8-20 cm. across ; flesh not ver}' 

 thick, brown, with a tinge of purple ; tubes •very long, stratose, 

 brown, substance hard ; pores at first whitish, then umber, 

 very minute, about 4 in the space of 1 mm. ; margin sterile, 

 often slightly thickened. 



