EVANS—THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF ASTERELLA. 293 
and with the longer description of Lehmann and Lindenberg,’ drawn up from 
the type material. This species, as the writer understands it, has not yet been 
found on the American mainland or in the Old World, although A. elegans has 
been reported from several widely separated localities in both hemispheres, most 
of the records (in the writer’s opinion) being based on incorrect determinations, 
As a matter of fact, the species is exceedingly variable and has a number of 
close allies, some of which are distinguished with difficulty. 
Among the features emphasized by Sprengel the tuberculate, 4-lobed female 
receptacle and the pilose peduncle are especially worthy of mention. Leh- 
mann and Lindenberg, without alluding in any way to the histological features 
or the male inflorescence, add a few important details about the thallus and 
the female receptacle. They estimate the size of the thallus as 0.6 to 1.2 cm. X 3 
mm., and describe the upper surface as glaucous green with white dots (the 
epidermal pores) and the margin and lower surface as purple; they allude 
also to the occurrence of apical innovations. They describe the pseudoperianths 
as hyaline or purple, with 6 to 8 linear divisions, coherent at the apex; the 
spores as purple and marginate; and the elaters as simple and purplish, each 
in a narrow tube, thus implying a unispiral condition, 
Among the suspicious or incorrect records the one made by DeNotaris ” 
in 1839 should be particularly mentioned. On the basis of a specimen col- 
lected by Thomas on the island of Corsica he reported the species as Euro- 
pean. Corsica has since been bryologically explored with considerable care, 
especially by Camus,’ but no additional material of A. elegans has come to 
light, and nobody has reported it from other parts of Europe. In spite of this 
meager evidence the species has been quoted as European by Underwood, 
Stephani, Miiller, Massalongo, and other recent writers. Boulay,* however, 
refers rather vaguely to certain old reports of F. elegans in France and states 
that they were based on Grimaldia fragrans. Whether this statement applies 
to the Corsican record is not definitely brought out. It is to be hoped that 
European botanists may take the trouble of studying the specimens in the 
DeNotaris Herbarium at Turin and of determining their true status. 
In proposing F. cublanlensis Lehm. as a new species Montague compared 
it with F. elegans, describing the thallus as shorter, broader, and not convo- 
lute from ascending borders, and the receptacle as barbate below. The illus- 
trations, drawn by Gottsche, show, among other details, female receptacles 
with the disks covered over with low tubercles; peduncles bearing scattered 
paleae with a denser tuft at the apex; both male and female receptacles borne 
on more or less elongate branches, broadening out from a stalklike base and 
thus implying a ventral origin; ventral scales not crowded, ovate and gradu- 
ally narrowed to a subulate acuminate appendage; dark brown spores showing 
a paler wing and (in the case of a crushed spore) a fairly regular reticulum; and 
3 short elaters, 2 with a single spiral each and the third with more than 1 spiral. 
It will be seen at once that these characters are hardly sufficient to separate 
a species, a conclusion which was reached by the authors of the Synopsis 
Hepaticarum and afterwards by Montagne ® himself, 
In the Synopsis, F. elegans is again described but no very important char- 
acter is added except that the ventral scales sometimes show two appendages. 
The authors recognize, however, 5 distinct forms or varieties and assign to 
1Qehm, Noy. Stirp. Pugill, 4: 28. 1832. 
2 Mem, Accad. Sci. Torino II, 1: 835. 1839, 
2 Bull, Soc. Bot. France 48: cli-elxxiv. 1902. 
*Musc. France 2: 190. 1904. 
5 Syll. Crypt. 92. 1856. 
