950 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 
a single species of the Azores, 2. azorica Bisch., and was admitted 
into the Synopsis Hepaticarum and several subsequent works. Schiff- 
ner reduced the genus to synonymy in 1893,! and its single species 
is now considered identical with Fimbriaria africana Mont., or 
Asterella africana (Mont.) Underw., as it should be called, a species 
known from Madeira, the Canary Islands, and Algeria, as well as 
from the Azores. Octoskepos was likewise a monotypic genus, being 
based on O. khasianus Griffith, of the Himalayas. Mitten, in 1861,? 
reduced it to synonymy under Fimbriaria, to which genus he trans- 
ferred the single species, and it is retained in this position by 
Stephani. 
Of the North American species recognized by Stephani in his 
monograph the following eight were originally described by Ameri- 
can writers: A. bolanderi, A. palmeri, and A. violacea by Austin; 
A. austini, A. pringlei, and A. wrightii by Underwood; A. lateralis 
and A. nudata by Howe. The remaining species were all described 
by Europeans. Soon after the appearance of Stephani’s mono- 
graph Howe® published an account of the species occurring in Cali- 
fornia and found it necessary to reduce A. nudata to synonymy un- 
der A. palmeri, His treatment of the genus, which is remarkably 
full and clear, is accompanied by detailed illustrations of most of 
the Californian species and has been of great assistance to the writer 
in the preparation of the present report. 
MORPHOLOGICAL NOTES ON THE GENUS. 
The species of Asterella grow on earth, often among rocks, and 
sometimes form depressed mats of considerable extent. Although 
the genus has many tropical representatives, it extends as far south 
as Chile, Australia, and New Zealand, and as far north as Green- 
land, Alaska, Siberia, and Scandinavia. The European species, in 
fact, are characteristically alpine or arctic in their distribution, and 
most of them are found also in the northern parts of America and 
Asia. The genus includes both xerophytic and mesophytic species, 
some of the latter being at times almost hygrophytic in their appear- 
ance.' Pigmentation with purple or red is a common phenomenon, 
although certain species usually show no signs of it. The pigmenta- 
tion is especially well marked in xerophytic species, in which the 
thallus becomes involute upon drying, but it is often found almost 
as abundantly under more mesophytic conditions. The ventral sur- 
face is the first region to be affected, but pigmented dots or blotches 
— 
*Engl. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. 1°: 33. 1893. 
* Journ. Proc. Linn. Soc. Bot. 5: 126, 1861. 
*Mem. Torrey Club 7: 46-57. pl. 95-99. 1899. 
