BULLETIN 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 
Vol. X.l New York, Oct & Nov.. 1883. [Nos. IO& II 
Notes on the American Species of Tolypella. 
By T. r. Allen, 
(Plates xxxviL-xLii.) 
In this paper some new species of the genus Tolypella will be de- 
scribed and an account given of those already known to inhabit 
America, which promises to yield an unusual number of these inter- 
esting plants. 
The two families into which the Characeee may be divided are 
characterized mainly by the structure of the coronula of the sporan- 
gium, this being formed by a division of the cells, which, like spiral 
tubes, envelop the nucleus. In the Cliarece a shigle septum in each 
tube, .near its extremity, gives rise to a circle oi Jive cells on the top 
,of the sporangium. In the NitelkiB two septa form, and a double 
series, of five cells each, produces a coronula of ten cells; this, in 
some species, is detached as the fruit matures (not increasing in size, 
paripassu^ with the enveloping cells) and is evanescent^ while in others 
it \% persistent. The Nitellece consist of two genera mainly differen- 
tiated by the position of the anther idium, ^\\\c\\ in Nitella is apical, 
on the primary ray of the leaf, while the sporangia are lateral on the 
node below the antheridium. The leaves also possess but one leaf- 
bearing node, though they may divide repeatedly. In Tolypella (A.Br.) 
Leonh., the leaves have 1-3 nodes, bearing leaflets and many-celled 
terminals; the leaflets do not equal in size the primary ray, are many- 
celled and often themselves have nodes which bear leaflets. Anther- 
idia are one or several, lateral on t/te nodes of the leaf and leaflet^ and 
also at the fundus of the verticil within the leaves (when, like the spor- 
iingia, they seem to arise from the cells surrounding the base of the 
leaf [the basilar node] T. F. A.), mostly with an elongated stipe.* 
In most species, the leaf-node seems to possess six principal nodal 
cells which encircle the leaf, three of these giving rise to fruit, and 
three to leaflets. Sometimes we find four fruiting cells and two leaf- 
lets, and sometimes the reverse. In a few instances the nodal cells 
are sub-divided, and an increased number of fruits and leaves is found. 
This is now and then observed in T. intertexta in the sub-division 
of a nodal cell, so that double sporangia are produced, one above the 
other. At first sight this looks like a circle of four sporangia with a 
central antheridium. The fruiting cells are always on the ventral 
(looking inward toward the axis of the plant) aspect of leaf, 
and the leaflets are always dorsal. The antheridium seems to occupy 
•Prof. Brauu says: *' Sporangia^yzirr^wA/i/jWi,'- the antheridium in large numbers 
on the nodes of the leaf" etc. Numerous preparations of fresh specimens with 
careful staining of the protoplasm, and good sections of the nodes have failed to 
^now, in any American species, that the sporangia arise from cells ''surroundtng 
Ihe base of the antheridium. 
