Asterella elegans (Spreng.) Trevis.

Asterella elegans (Spreng.) Trevisan, Rend
1st. Lomb. II. 7: 785. 1874.
Fimhriaria elegans Spreng. Syst. 4^: 235. 1827. -
Fimbriaria cubanensis I^m.; Mont, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 9: 489. 1845. Fimhriaria elegans cuhensis G. L. N. Syn. Hep. 565. 1846. Hypenantron elegans Trevisan, Mem. 1st. Lomb. 13: 441. 1877. Asterella cubensis Underw. Bot. Gaz. 20: 63. 1895. Asterella Austini Underw. Bot. Gaz. 20: 64. 1895. Asterella Wrightii Underw. Bot. Gaz. 20: 64. 1895. Fimbriaria Wrightii Stephani, Bull. Herb. Boiss. 7: 97. 1899. Fimhriaria Austini Stephani, Bull. Herb. Boiss. 7: 203. 1899.
Thallus usually green above in the middle and purple beneath and along the margin, mostly 1-3 cm. long and 2-4 mm. wide, with a rounded keel and undulate, often crispate margins, scarious when old but scarcely or not at all incurved when dry, rarely dichotomous, usually branching ventrally and with apical innovations; epidermal cells averaging about 50 X 30 M, with slightly thickened walls, sometimes with minute trigones; cells containing oil-bodies few and scattered; pores elevated, surrounded usually by 6-8 radiating series of cells with 3 or 4 cells in each series; radial walls slightly thickened; green tissue compact, the dorsal ahr-chambers with crowded, vertical, supplementary partitions: compact ventral tissue composed of cells with more or less thickened walls and distinct pits; appendages of
ventral scales usually single, rarely in pairs, narrowly lanceolate to subulate, mostly 0.6-0.9
mm. long and 0.09-0.15 mm. wide, acuminate, entire or rarely with a spine-like basal tooth.
Autoicous; male receptacle terminal on a more or less elongate branch, sometimes with an
apical innovation, oval or emarginate, fringed by narrow paleae; female receptacle borne on
a similar branch, the stalk more or less purple, with scattered lanceolate paleae and a denser
apical cluster, mostly 1-1.5 cm. long, the disc hemispheric, mostly 3-4 mm. wide, coarsely
tuberculate, the tubercles less than 0.5 mm. long, normally four-lobed, the lobes short but
distinct, extending obUquely downward; involucre entire or sinuate; pseudoperianth usually
white to brownish but sometimes tinged with purple, mostly 8-£left, the segments connate
at the tips, lanceolate; operculum remaining intact at dehiscence ; spores paleto dark-brown,
mostly 80-100 m in diameter with wavy wings 8-20 m wide, spore-surface minutely and irregul-
larly punctulate and also covered with a coarse and usually regular network, the meshes
15-20 M wide; elaters pale-brown to dark-brown, mostly 12-14 /x wide, sometimes unispiral
or bispiral throughout but usually bispiral in the middle and unispiral at the end.
Type i^ocaliTy: Hispaniola.
Distribution; West Indies; also reported from Europe but the record doubtful.

Asterella elegans, the elegant asterella, is a species of liverworts in the family of Aytoniaceae. It is found in Texas, Mexico, Guatemala and Cuba.