318 EVANS. 



the costa. Stephani describes the branches as hairless throughout, 

 and the writer has been equally unable to demonstrate hairs. It would 

 be unwise, however, to draw definite conclusions from the relatively 

 few male branches examined. 



Female branches are much more common than male branches, and 

 Lindberg's description brings out their most important features. He 

 describes them as hairy along the margin and ventrally in the thick- 

 ened median portion but as hairless elsewhere and adds that the 

 marginal hairs occur singly and that they are very long, crowded, 

 decurved and divaricate. The writer can confirm most of these 

 statements but has demonstrated, in several cases, the occurrence of 

 the hairs in pairs (Fig. 10, F). The calyptra, which is covered over 

 with long hairs, presents few distinctive features; capsules have not 

 yet been studied in detail; and gemmae are apparently never pro- 

 duced. 



Stephani's record for the closely related species, M. albinea, was 

 based on a specimen from Huafo Island, collected by Skottsberg. Since 

 this specimen differs from M. albinea in being dioicous instead of 

 autoicous, and since it shows the other distinctive features of M. 

 hamata, it is included in the list of specimens given above. His record 

 for M. nitida was based on a specimen collected by Naumann in the 

 Straits of Magellan. In all probability it was an original specimen of 

 Schiffner and Gottsche's M. magellanica, since this species is definitely 

 cited as a synonym of M. nitida, but nothing to this effect is explicitly 

 stated. 



In the writer's opinion M. nitida, although recognized as valid by 

 Stephani and others, is a synonym of M. hamata. Mitten's original 

 description is brief and unsatisfactory, stating merely that the thallus 

 is dichotomous; that the costa is bounded both dorsally and ventrally 

 by two rows of cortical cells; that the margin bears a few cilia, arising 

 singly or in pairs; and that the cells are hyaline, smooth, and four 

 times as large as those of M. f areata. In a supplementary note the 

 further information is given that the species is almost exactly like 

 M. f areata in appearance, except that the larger and more trans- 

 lucent cells give it a shiny aspect. 



The original description cites only two specimens: "Australia, 

 Apollo Bay, Sir F. ton Mueller," and "New Zealand, Rev. W. Colenso, 

 on a specimen of Homalia pulchella, a 279." In the Mitten Herbarium 

 the M. nitida cover contains a series of specimens from Australia, 

 Tasmania, and New Zealand and also a few where no locality is indi- 

 cated. One of the Australian specimens is labeled, " Jungermannia 87, 



