321 MESSRS. H. AND J. GROVES ON CHARACER 
(1815), C. indica, Bertero (1829), C. verticillata, Roxb. (1833), 
C. armata, Meyen (1835), and C. hattensis, Turpin, all of which 
Braun has referred to the same species. In 1835, Braun (in 
Regensb. Bot. Zeit. i. p. 70) described C. polyphylla (from Ohio) 
aud C. Commersonii (from Bourbon) as new species. In 1844 
(in Amer. Journ. Sci. vol. xlvi. p. 93) he classed C. foliolosa with 
C. zeylanica and C. Michauwii (his former C. polyphylla) “as 
subspecies under the principal species C. polyphylla, A. Braun.” 
In 1845 (Boston Journ. Nat. Hist. v.5) he distinguished seven 
subspecies of C. polyphylla, viz. Michausxii, guadeloupensis, 
ceylonica, javanica, Muhlenbergii, Humboldtiana, and armata. 
In 1847, in a note at the end of his account of the Swiss Characee, 
he mentioned the group of species with the ecortieate lowest 
segment of the branchlets as containing C. gymnopus, Braun, 
C. Commersonii, C. armata, C. zeylanica, C. polyphylla, C. sejuncta, 
and C. Martiana. This was, so far as we know, the first publication 
of the name C. gymnopus, and although there is'no description, 
it seems quite clear that it was intended to refer only to the 
form from Egypt (the locality mentioned) as distinguished from 
the previously-described plants from other parts of the world. 
In 1858 (in Charac. aus Columb. Guyana u. Mittelamerika), he 
referred to C. gymnopus as the Egyptian plant, and in ‘ Characeen 
Afrika’s’ (1867) he first used the name in an aggregate sense. 
There is no doubt that Braun was the first to understand the 
extent of the species, but this does not in any way justify his 
selecting for it one of the most recent of his own segregate 
names, 
2. C. zEvuantca, Willd. 
In the hard clay bottom of a shallow ditch, Antigua, 18th 
January, 1895. A young sterile state from 1 to 2 in. higb, with 
only the first and last segments ecorticate, aud with small spine- 
cells. 
3. NITELLA DICTYOSPERMA, sp. nov. (Sect. Diarthrodactyle, 
homeophylle, flabellata, gymnocarpx, monoice-) 7 fer 
Habitus proxime N. oligospire. Ramuli verticillorum " 
tilium circiter 6, similes, 2-3plo-furcati ; radii primari P 
rumque 5-6, radii secundarii 38-4, quorum 1-2 in radiis p 
rumque denuo trifurcati. Segmenta primaria ramulorum Omni 
