CHAROPHYTA COLLECTED IN CEYLON, 97 
On Charophyta collected by Mr. Thomas Bates Blow, F.L.S., in Ceylon. 
By JAMES Groves, F.L.S. 
[Read 3rd November, 1921.) 
(PLATE 6.) 
In the course of travels in various parts of the world, extending over many 
vears, Mr. Blow has collected a very large number of specimens of Charophyta, 
which he kindly handed over to my late brother and myself. 
The countries in which the collections were made are :— West Indies (1895); 
Ceylon (1895 & 1898); Western Australia (1895-6); South Australia (1896) ; 
New South Wales (1896); Victoria (1896) ; Northern Territory (1896) ; 
New Zealand (1896); Straits Settlements (1896) ; Tunis (1897) ; Japan 
(1896-9) ; India (1899 & 1908); Spain (1914); France (1920-1); 
Portugal (1921). 
Although often collecting and preserving the plants under difficult con- 
ditions, Mr. Blow has maintained a high standard of excellence in his 
specimens, and it has been a great pleasure to have such exceptionally good 
material to deal with. 
The specimens collected in the West Indies formed the subject of a paper 
which was read before the Society on the 16th of December, 1897, which 
appeared in its Journal, Botany, xxxiii. pp. 323-6 (1898). 
My late brother determined a considerable number of the specimens from 
the other gatherings, but we were unable in his lifetime to report completely 
on any of them. 
The present paper deals with the two collections from Ceylon, by far the 
most extensive which have been made in that island. 
The first collection was made in the course of journeys along the west 
coast and in the high ground in the central parts of the island, in November 
1895, when some of the plants.were immature ; the second on the south coast, 
in January 1898, when most of them had well-developed fruit. 
In many cases the specimens were collected in the disused tanks, some of 
them like small lakes, which formed part of tlie extensive system of irrigation 
in existence many centuries ago, but now abandoned. 
A complete set of specimens is in my own herbarium, which will ultimately 
be handed over to the British Museum. Where there are duplicates they 
will be distributed to Kew and other public herbaria. 
NITELLA ACUMINATA, Braun in Hooker’s Journ. Bot. i. (1849) p. 292 (as 
var. Bellangert). 
Dambool, Central Province, 6th Nov. 1895, no. 6; Anuradhapura, 
LINN. JOURN.—BOTANY, VOL. XLVI. H 
