476 Evans: THREE SOUTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF ASTERELLA 
other structural features. The writer therefore feels compelled 
to regard the two species as synonyms and maintains the specific 
name macropoda because F. macropoda precedes F. canalensis in 
Spruce’s work. A careful study of the specimens listed above 
(which include the types of both species) has also shown that this 
reduction to synonymy is warranted. 
Among the resemblances mentioned by Spruce the following 
may be cited as important: the narrow midrib; the terminal 
female receptacle; the slender paleae of the peduncle, clus- 
‘tered at the apex but scattered elsewhere; the tuberculate disc, 
four-lobed to the middle; and the violet-colored divisions of the 
pseudoperianth. Stephani adds that the inflorescence in both is 
autoicous, that the minute male inflorescences are borne on short 
ventral branches, and that the elaters are bispiral. Among the 
differences brought out by Spruce it will be sufficient to note the 
following: in A. canalensis the thallus is elongated, the appendages 
of the ventral scales are lanceolate-subulate, the peduncle is 
short and the pseudoperianth is sixteen- (or seventeen-) cleft; 
while in A. macropoda the thallus is ovate-oblong, the appendages 
of the ventral scales are obliquely triangular and acuminate, the 
peduncle is long, and the pseudoperianth is twelve-cleft. Stephani 
describes or implies. certain further differences in the epidermal 
pores, in the ventral scales, in the discs of the female receptacles, 
and in the spores; but a careful scrutiny of his statements, as well 
as those quoted from Spruce will at once make it evident that 
these differences would easily come within the range of vari- 
ability to be expected in the organs concerned. 
The writer regrets that no specimens of F. Mandoni have 
been available for study and that the reduction of this species to 
synonymy might therefore be considered unjustifiable. A careful 
comparison of Stephani’s descriptions, however, will show that 
the characters separating it from F. macropoda are exceedingly 
questionable, and that most of the organs are described in essen- 
tially equivalent phrases. Perhaps the most important differ- 
ences indicated are those drawn from the ventral scales and the 
spores. In F. Mandoni the appendages of the scales are said to be 
lanceolate, strongly attenuate, and filiform at the apex, and the 
spores are described as 90u in diameter and broadly lobate- 
