14 BRITISH CHAROPHYTA. 



Pastinaca saliva, Crarnbe tatarica, and one or other 

 species of Brassica. 



The first publication of the name " Chara ' in its 

 present sense, appears to be that in Dalechamps' 

 magnificent folio, ' Historia Generalis Plantarum,' I, 

 p. 1070 (1587), where, curiously enough, it is quoted 

 as a popular name applied by the inhabitants of Lyons 

 to a species of which they made use to scour plates and 

 other domestic utensils.* This is apparently also the 

 earliest reference of any kind to a member of the group. 

 Vaillant was the first to make use of the name in a 

 botanical sense, when in 1719 he established the genus. 



The evidence of the existence of a local popular 

 name for one of these obscure and inconspicuous 

 plants is of great interest. Probably, with this 

 exception, there has been no genuine common name 

 for these plants, though in several countries pseudo- 

 popular names have been bestowed upon them by 

 botanists. The later eighteenth century English 

 botanists styled them " Stone worts," and we find them 

 sometimes called " Water-Horsetails ' and " Brittle- 

 worts." In France, according to Adanson, 4 Famille 

 des Plantes,' II, p. 537 (1763) they were called 

 " Girandole d'eau " and " Lustre d'eau,"= water chan- 

 delier, an ingenious and apt idea, translated into 

 German as "Armleuchter-Gewachse." In the modern 

 French floras they are styled " Charagnes." In 

 Pursh's ' Flora of North America ' the curious name 

 " Featherbeds ' is cited for them. 



* " Est et quintum genus (sc Equiseti), minimum, aquis coenosis innatans, 

 vel sub iis- occultum semper, brevissimis et asperis f oliis, ac caulibus, lutosum 

 virus olentibus. Lugdunenses vocant chara quasi Cheredranon, quo 

 nomine Equisetum vocari in supposititiis nomenclaturis Dioscoridis legimus, 

 ea quae lances escarias, et reliquam eiusmodi supellectileni abstergunt, ut 

 et primo genere, quod vocant Prelle, quasi <t>aipav. Nani et sic appelari 

 loco proximo citato traditur." 



