178 Evans: TAXONOMIC STUDY OF DUMORTIERA 
smooth form predominates in the West Indies. Out of over 
fifty West Indian specimens examined (including fifteen from 
Jamaica, the type-locality for M. hirsuta) only two showed papil- 
lae. Of course this evidence is not absolutely conclusive, and if it 
should ever be proved that the original specimen of M. hirsuta 
represented the papillose form, the synonymy of the species would 
have to be revised. 
There is no such doubt about Marchantia irrigua. The Irish 
specimens of Dumortiera are all smooth on the upper surface, with 
_ rather vague vestiges of air chambers, and (as Schiffner has shown) 
never produce papillae even under cultivation. The vars. angus- 
tior and intermedia of the Synopsis need further study. Var. 
angustior was based on Mexican plants with a strongly setulose 
female receptacle, while var. intermedia was based on plants from 
Peru and South Africa with fewer bristles on the receptacle. 
Neither of these varieties is known to the writer from authentic 
material. The same thing is true of Griffith’s Askepos brevipes, 
which was based on Indian specimens. Schiffner reduced Griffith's 
genus to synonymy under Dumortiera in 1893 (9, p. 35) but has 
apparently made no definite reference to its single species. Ac- 
cording to Griffith’s description and figures A. brevipes is clearly 
a Dumortiera. It is here referred to D. hirsuta, rather than to 
D. nepalensis, on the basis of one of Griffith’s specimens in the 
Mitten Herbarium. This specimen came from Dehra, India, 
and is labelled ‘‘Askepos’”’; the thallus shows a smooth dorsal 
surface with vestigial air chambers, and the female receptacle 
bears scattered bristles. 
2. DUMORTIERA NEPALENSIS (Tayl.) Nees 
prokalios nepalensis Tay}. Trans. Linn. Soc. 17: 392. pl. 15, f. 2. 
1836. 
Marchantia trichocephala Hook. Icon. Pl. pl. 158. 1837. 
Dumortiera nepalensis Nees, Naturg. Europ. Leberm. 4: 169. 
1838. 
Dumortiera trichocephala Nees, 1. c. 4: 499. 1838. 
Dumortiera hirsuta latior G. L. & N. Syn. Hep. 544. 1846. 
Dumortiera hirsuta trichopus Spruce, ios Bot. Soc. Edinb. 15: 
567. 1885. 
