182 SOME NEW CHAKACE^ RECORDS. 



Stictis STELLA.TA Wallr. On dead stems of Eupatorlum canna- 

 binum. West Kilbride ; Nov. 1893. 



Thyrsidium Hedericolum Dur. & Mont. var. Carpini Sacc. On 

 dead branch of Carpinus Betulus. West Kilbride ; Nov. 1895. 



OvuLARiA Bistorts Sacc. On Polygonum Bistorta. Kilmarnock; 

 Aug. 1897. 



Kamularia Valerianae Sacc. On Valeriana officinalis. West Kil- 

 bride ; July, 1897. 



SOME NEW CHARACE^ RECORDS. 

 By the Rev. G. R. Bullock-Webster. 



I HAVE been devoting my spare time during the last two seasons 

 to field-work amongst the Characece of our Cambridgeshire fenUxnds, 

 with occasional visits into the neighbouring counties of Norfolk and 

 Suilolk. The fens of North Cambridgeshire, abounding as they do 

 in ditches, drains, lodes, and rivers, supply an almost unlimited 

 hunting ground for all water-plants, but perhaps peculiarly for 

 CharacecB, for the extremely fugitive character of some of the species 

 seems to render it practically impossible to exhaust a locality ; a 

 ditch or drain carefully searched through a whole season without 

 yielding a single specimen of the order may likely enough another 

 year produce a plentiful supply. This is peculiarly the case with 

 the Tolypellas. Indeed, it w^ould, I think, be true to say that these 

 are seldom found in the same spot two years in succession ; more- 

 over, their growth and decay are so rapid that unless their 

 temporary habitat be discovered during the fortnight or three 

 weeks of their season, it becomes very difficult to detect them at all. 



West Norfolk seems to have been very little worked for the 

 CJiaracecB, though it embraces a fenland area which well repays 

 examination. So far, Messrs. Groves's census has only recorded 

 three species from the vice-county — Chara vulgaris L., Chara fragilis 

 var. Hedwigii Kuetz., and Tohjpella glomerata Leonh. To these I 

 was able to add last summer Chara fragilis Desv. and C. hispida L., 

 collected in ditches near the Little Ouse, in the parish of St. John's, 

 Little Ouse, C. aspera Willd. in one of the meres in the Breck district, 

 north of Thetford, C. j^ohjacantha Braun in Garboldisham Fen, and 

 G. vulgaris var. longibracteata Kuetz. in the counterwash drain near 

 Welney. But the more interesting West Norfolk yields were Nitella 

 flexilis Agardli and N. mucronata Kuetz. from the Little Ouse, and 

 Tolgpella 2rrolif era heonh., ^liich I collected in excellent condition 

 in three separate stations — along the Norfolk bank of the Little 

 Ouse, in a drain near Southery, and in a ditch near the counter- 

 wash drain at Welney. 



I visited the neighbourhood of Lowestoft early in July, with a 

 view to collecting specimens of Chara canescens from the ground 

 where Messrs. Salmon had found it in 1896, and the locality of 

 which they were kind enough to indicate to me. I was only able, 

 after careful search, to discover one solitary specimen — an instance 



