R help - Sep 2009 - extract clusters from a hclusrt object without cutree

Hello,

I am generating an hclust() object and want to extract a subset of 
clusters WITHOUT using cutree().  I see this somehow involves using the 
$merge matrix to associate $labels into their appropriate clusters where 
clusters are split below a given $height threshold.  Can anyone suggest 
a way/code to do this?  I see cutree uses embedded fortran code, so it's 
not obvious how cutree does it....



thanks
Tony