absence of algal cells in the thallus, the septation of the spores and whether parasitic or not on other lichens. Some of Vainio's genera are classed as fungi, but it seems that in a few species some specimens have algal cells and others not. The division between species with simple and with 1-septate spores is also not clearly marked, although the majority fall readily into one group or the other. I have included all these variations within the genus, but divided the New Zealand species among three subgenera, one of which is new. All the New Zealand species have whitish cvanescent or obsolete thalli.

Calicium abietinum Pers. var. abietinum

Calicium abietinum Pers, Dispos. Meth. Fungor., 59 (1797).

Calicium curtum Borr, Bab. in Hook Fl. N. Z. Vol. II, 304 (1855).

Nyl. Synops. Lich. I, 156 (1860).

Hook Handb N. Z. Fl., 558 (1867).

Kirk Trans. N. Z. Inst., 4, 235 (1871).

Hellbom, Bihang Kgl. Sv. Vetensk. Akad. Handl., 21, 111, 130 (1896).

Calicium abietinum var. denigratum (Vain) Zahlbr. apud Szatala, Borbasia, 1, 55 (1939).

Thallus whitish, very thin or evanescent, more or less homoiomerous with scattered bright green algal cells; apothecia (including stipe) up to 2 mm high but usually 0.8 to 1 mm, stipe 0.1–0.2 mm thick, black with hyaline outer layer; capitulum more or less turbinate (topshaped), 0.2–0.5 mm wide, white pruinose beneath or marginally only, or epruinose; spores dark, ellipsoid, 2-celled, distinctly constricted at septum, 7–12 × 5–6μ with roundish loculae. (Description adapted from Vainio, 1927, p. 41.)

Habitat. On old wood.

Distribution. More or less cosmopolitan. Otago: Flagstaff, 4,600; Merton, 1649.

This is apparently the only species previously found in New Zealand, having been reported from the North Island by Babington, Szatala and Kirk, and from Otago by Hellbom. The species is evidently a variable one in Europe, and several varieties and forms have been reported from there. I am not quite certain which should be regarded as the typical variety, but have taken it to be Vainio's var. glaucellum (C. glauccllum Ach.) since this is apparently much the commonest form in the Northern Hemisphere. According to Vainio (1972), C. abietinum f. denigratum is an inconstant form differing from the typical variety in the less developed thallus and total absence of pruina on the apothecia; actually it is ranked as a form also by Zahlbruckner.

Calicium abietinum var. australe Murray, var. nov.

A C. abietino Pers. var. abietino differt stipite tenuiore, capitulo parviore et nudo, et sporis majoribus. Thallus evanescens.

Thallus whitish or greyish, very thin or obsolete, containing a few trebouxioid algae among the hyphae; apothecia about 0.8 mm high, stipe tapering upwards from about 0. 18 mm at base to 0.07–0.09 below capitulum; capitulum subcylindrical to rather turbinate, black and somewhat shining, epruinose, K+ pale brown, about 0.2 mm dia. and 0.18 mm high with mazedium forming a nearly flat top to 0.3 mm dia. Apothecia dark brown in section with hyaline outer layer of ill-defined structure 8–9μ thick; paraphyses few, very slender, simple and aseptate; asci cylindrical ca. 55 × 5μ; spores in one series, dark brownish or smoky grey, oblong to ovate, 1-septate, definitely constricted at septum, (7½−) 12–15 (−18) × (5−) 6–7½ (−8)μ wall and septum 1½μ thick (spores still in the ascus are hyaline, 1-septate, 7½ × 4½μ). Pycnidia not seen.

Habitat. Old wood.

Distribution. Otago: Taieri Beach, 3718; Akatore Gorge, 3725. Southland. Forest Hill, 3474 (Type).

The variety differs from typical abietinum principally in the larger spores and total absence of pruina. Var. meizopus Vain. has similar large spores but the apothecia are 1.5–2mm high and the capitulum is broader and more turbinate; only the type specimen of this variety seems to have been reported.

Calicium sphaerocephalum (L) Ach.

Mucor sphaerocephalus L., Sp. Pl. 1185 (1753).

Calicium sphaerocephalum Ach., Method. Lich. 91 (1803).

Thallus white to pale cream, very thin or evanescent, penetrating within the substrate and containing scattered trebouxioid algal cells (and occasional Nostoc cells which are probably chance contaminants); apothecia about 2 mm high, stipe black, epruinose, tapering from 150μ at base to 100μ at top, capitula dark brown or nearly black, cup-shaped, 300–350μ diameter and 300μ high; excipulum without hyaline layer but reddish pruinose and K+ reddish-brown, mazedium convex, spores dark brown, all 1-septate, rather strongly constricted at septum, oblong to ovoid with nearly spherical cells, 6½-9 × 5μ.

Habitat. On old wood.

Distribution. Northern Hemisphere, (?) South America, Australia (as varieties). Southland: Forest Hill, 0265a (pr p. with Calicium subnigricans).

The single small specimen seen (consisting of six apothecia) has slightly smaller capitula and spores than usual for European material (Vainio, 1927, gives the capitula as 350–800μ dia. and the spores (6-) 10–13 × (3-) 5–7μ for Finnish specimens), but in other respects it agrees closely. There are pycnidia on the specimen, but I am uncertain with which species they are associated. The Australian C. trachelinum var. elattosporum Wilson is similar but is said to have still smaller spores (3–8 × 2–4μ), although Wilson's microscopic measurements on other lichens are often rather small, presumably due to a calibration error. I have not used this variety name without seeing material of it, in any case the name could well be dropped because of possible confusion with Calicium elassoporum Nyl.

Calicium floerkei Zahlbr.

Calicium floerkei Zahlbrucknei, Cat. Lich. Universalis 1, 598 (1923–40) (nom. nov. for Calicium pusillum Hepp., non Flk.)

Thallus very thin. up to 30μ thick on surface of substrate and penetrating beneath, whitish to pale creamy-white or partly evanescent, green globose algal cells scattered in surface layer; apothecia about 350μ high. stipe light brown, 75–100μ thick at base tapering to 35–60μ at top, without any hyaline layer; capitula top-shaped, 100–200μ dia, and same in height, dark brown, epruinose, K+ pale brownish; hymenium 75–80μ thick, hypothecium pale brown, conical; paraphyses more or less conglutinate, 1μ thick; asci cylindrical, 45–60 × 3μ, 8-spored, spores smoky grey (tuining brown with K), oblong to almost cylindrical, 1-septate with some simple thin-walled, 6–8 (-12) × 2.5–2.8μ not constricted at septum. Pycnidia not seen.

Habitat. On old bark.

Distribution. Europe. Otago: Mt. Cargill. 1, 500ft, T 2165 (on Libocedius bidicillii).

The specimens consist of several pieces of bark with an unrecognisable lichen of which little remains but disintegrating lecideine apothecia, and which is covered with the minute fruits. It agrees very closely with Vainio's description (1927) of Calicium subpusillum Vain. and Embolidium italicum Sacc. (=Calicium pusillum Hepp), which apparently differ significantly only in that the former has algal cells in the thallus and the latter not. In the New Zealand specimen some of the apothecia seem to have no gonidia within 100μ of their bases, while others are clearly associated with a lichen thallus, although the visible thallus, particularly the white portions, may in part belong to the decomposing lichen In some parts of the thallus the lichen hyphae were observed to produce thin-walled globose (?) chlamydospores, 5–8μ dia.

Calicium subnigricans Murray, sp. nov.

Thallus tenuissimus aut vix ullus, subalbidus, laevigatus, K-, parcibus gonidiis viridibus; apothecia altitudine 0.5–0.7mm, stipite 60–80μ crasso, dilute fuscescente, pellucido, intus distincte pallidiore; capitulo turbinato, major minusve albido-pruinoso, 200μ diametro et 100μ altitudine, K-; asci cylindrici, 8-sporae; sporae monostichae, pallidae vel griseae, semper simplices, oblongae, 4½ × 2.2μ, mazedium bene evolutum, nigricans, hemisphaericum; paraphyses 1½μ crassi, subsimplici, irregulares, pycnidia non certe visa.

Thallus marked by a whitish area containing a relatively small proportion of? trebouxioid cells 8μ dia. scattered singly and in groups among the thin hyphae and decomposing substrate cells; stipes 80μ dia. at base tapering to 60μ below capitula, structure not clearly seen but outer 15μ a slightly deeper brown than the centre, which is a pale straw colour. The whole capitulum is nearly globular, the upper two-thirds of which is the dark grey mazedium; the excipulum in young apothecia is white pruinose, the pruina disappearing in older fruits; the spores are all simple, oblong to somewhat ellipsoid, hyaline but darkening in the mazedium to a smoky grey.

Habitat. Old wood.

Distribution. Southland; Forest Hill, 0265b (pr. p. with Calicium sphaerocephalum) on dead Griselinia littoralis (Type).

This species with its simple spores falls in Mycocalicium, a group which has been variously interpreted in the past as including Calicium species without algae, in the thalli (i.e., fungi), lignicolous non-lichenized species with brown simple spores, and Calicium species with all simple spores whether lichenized or not. I have preferred to follow the last of these interpretations (Santesson, 1943) since it is not always possible to be sure whether algae are truly associated with the fungus hyphae in certain species, or indeed whether the apothecia are certainly derived from the thallus on which they are growing. C. subnigricans resembles in the nearly colourless spores C. arenarium Hampe (Coniocybopsis arenarium (Hampe) Vainio), a species of fungus parasitic on lecideine lichens, and differs from it principally in the smaller capitula with more developed mazedia and smaller spores, as well as in the habitat. The white pruina may not be a constant character.

There is evidently another New Zealand species in the Mycocalicium subgenus, judging by a North Island specimen from Hawke's Bay (Colenso, 3596, WELT). It is not complete, the capitula being reduced to the narrow excipula on dark brown stipes of uniform structure, K+ purplish; thallus none remaining; spores still clinging to the stipes are brown, simple, broadly ellipsoid, 7½ × 3–5½μ It is no longer completely identifiable, but is not referable to any European or South American species. The Australian Mycocalicium australicum Räsänen appears very similar but for slightly longer spores.

Crassistipitum Murray, subgenus Calicii novum.

Thallus tenuis vel obsoletus; stipites apotheciorum magis crassi, a capitulis non bene distincti, totum apothecium subcylindricum vel infundabiliforme; sporae pro majore parte nigricantes, uniseptatac.

The new subgenus is separated from Calicium proper by the relatively broad stipes which are not clearly delimited from the capitula. The apothecial margin and