EVANS—THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF ASTERELLA. 3801 
Veracruz: Orizaba, 1853, Miiller 2285 in part (N. Y.; listed by Gottsche in 
Dansk. Vid. Selsk. Skrivt. V. 6: 272, 18638, as I’. elegans y obtusata); same 
locality, J. G. Smith (N. Y.); along the Coatepec road and railroad, Barnes & 
Land 557 (Y.); Cérdoba, Farlow 15 (N. Y.; listed as A. elegans by Under- 
wood). 
Ecuapor: Near Bafios, Spruce (listed by Spruce as F’. elegans (?) and dis- 
tributed under the same name in Hep. Spruceanae). 
The following records for Ff’. elegans in literature should probably be trans- 
ferred to A. lateralis: 
Oaxaca: Near Comaltepec, Liebmann (listed in Syn, Hep. as ¢ obtusata). 
Veracruz: Near Jalapa, Beyrich 64, Schiede & Deppe 110; Orizaba, Lieb- 
mann (all listed in Syn. Hep. as 6 beyrichiana). 
Costa Rica: Without definite locality, Wendland (listed by Stephani in Bull. 
Herb. Boiss. 7: 199. 1899). 
Ecuapor: Canelos, Spruce. 
The type material of A. lateralis is not in very good condition and the female 
receptacles are so dried and shriveled that they fail to give a very convine- 
ing idea of their true features. Even the spores and elaters give an impression 
of rather poor development. ‘The second specimen which Howe cites, collected 
at Tepic, shows immature female receptacles, but the surface tubercles are dis- 
tinct, those of the lobes being more pronounced than those of the central por- 
tion of the disk. In spite of his unsatisfactory material Howe has given a 
full and clear description of the species and the writer has been able to add 
very little to it. Howe's account of the spores, however, deserves some am- 
plification, and his description of the elaters as “ bispiral” does not bring out 
the fact that they are commonly unispiral at the ends. 
Through the study of the rather extensive series of specimens listed above 
the writer has reached the conclusion that A. lateralis is not uncommon in 
Mexico, but that it has been confused with A. elegans. Whether the two varlie- 
tis, beyrichiana and obtusata, of the Synopsis actually represent A. lateralis 
must of course remain doubtful in the absence of specimens, although Miiller’s 
plants from Orizaba, referred by Gottsche to the variety obtusata, are clearly 
the same as Howe's species. 
According to the original description the spores are “ brown, opaque, 75 to 
90 w, very minutely granulose papillate, the angles with a narrow concolorous 
margin, the faces exhibiting a few low ridges, these often uniting to form 
2 to 4 shallow rather irregular areolae across each face, the more mature and 
opaque spores appearing simply warty-rugose in outline or subentire.” When 
the spores are well developed, however, they are larger than this account indi- 
cates and show a more regular reticulum. The fact that the reticulum rarely 
involves the marginal wings will serve to distinguish the spores from those of 
A. elegans and other allied species. The wings in consequence appear homo- 
geneous in texture except for the slightly darker margin, the entire surface 
being covered with crowded dots. Occasionally one of the ridges extends 
partly across a wing, giving the appearance of a dark line, but it usually thins 
out and disappears before reaching the margin. The wings and ridges do not 
show the marked broadening out on their edges which is so characteristic a 
feature in A. elegans, and there are usually no linear markings in this region. 
The close relationship existing between A. lateralis and A. elegans has al- 
ready been noted and has been brought out further by the descriptions, On 
the whole, however, the claims of A. lateralis for recognition as a species 
are considerably firmer than those of A. echinella. Aside from the differences 
in the spores and in the tubercles of the female receptacle, there are interest- 
