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SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE BRITISH 



CHAROPHYTA. 



The following account of the history of the identi- 

 fication of Charophyta in this country is reprinted 

 from "A Review of the British Characeae," by H. & J. 

 Groves (< Journ. Bot,,' XVIII, pp. 97-99, 1880). 



" In the second edition of Gerard's ' Her ball/ edited 

 by Johnson (1633), is the first mention we can trace 

 of any Charas in British books. Two species are 

 given : Hippuris coralloides, which is described as new, 

 and Equisetum foetidiim sub aqua repens Bauh. ; both 

 of these are probably C. vulgaris. In Parkinson's 

 6 Theatnmi Botanicum ' (1640) a figure of C. vulgaris 

 is given under Gerard's second name. Ray, in ( Cata- 

 logus Plantarum AngliaB ' (1670), mentions the same 

 two species as in Gerard, but the first under Gesner's 

 name Equisetum s. Hippuris lacustris foliis mansu 

 arenosis. Plukenet, in his 'Phytographia,' vol. i (1691), 

 figures 0. vulgaris (tab. 29) under Gesner's name, and 

 C. polyacantlia* (tab. 193), which he describes from a 

 plant sent from Ireland by Sherard as Hippuris mus- 

 cosis sub aqua repens; of the latter there is a speci- 

 men in his herbarium in the British Museum. In the 

 second edition of Ray's ' Synopsis ' (1696) four species 

 are given, the addition being G. minus sub aqua repens 

 ad genicula polyspermon, which is described from 

 Jersey, collected by Sherard, and is probably NiteUct 

 opaca. Morison, in ' Plant. Hist. Universalis Oxon,' 

 vol. iii (1699), figures a plant which he describes as 

 E. fragile majus subcinerea aguis immersum : this is 

 probably a large slightly-hispid form of C. vulgaris. 

 In the third (Dillenian) edition of Ray (1724), 

 Vaillant's generic name of Chara is introduced, and 

 C. translucens minor flexilis (N. opaca ?) is added. 



* = C. aculeolata Kiitz. 

 VOL. I. 6 



