1877] BOTANICAL CORRESPONDENCE. 379 



To Henry Groves, Esq. 



Cambkidqe, May 31, 1877. 

 My dear Sir, — I do think that your Callitriche is obtusangula, 

 although I have not softened the fruit so as to see its formation. 

 The best tract on Callitriche is " Hegelmaier, Monographie," but it 

 is mostly in German, with a little Latin. It has beautiful plates. 

 A small 4to book of 64 plates. I fear that you cannot get Nordstedt 

 and Wahlstedt. I have it not. — Yours truly, Charles C. Babington. 



To the same. 



0, Brookside, Cambridge, June 6, 1877. 

 My dear Sir, — I am glad to hear that the Callitriche obtusangula 

 is being found in many places. Of course that is what we had 

 reason to expect. The question about Chara* syncarpa is the presence 

 ■or absence of the mucilaginous coat to the nucules. I presume that 

 the three plants are always dioecious, and I do not know of the 

 characters of the globule-bearing plant, nor if we have those with 

 naked and clothed nucules. I see that I am making a mistake ; the 

 •characters are as I have them in MS. taken from books : (1) syncarpa, 

 nucules and globules coated with mucilage, spires of nucules broad, 

 flattened, faintly separated ; (2) capitata, similar, but the nucules 

 with rather acute spires ; (3) opaca, nucules and globules naked, 

 spires prominent. If you have fresh fruiting specimens I should be 

 glad to see some of them. I find myself quite unable to determine 

 these plants from dry specimens. But I want to direct your atten- 

 tion to these points when you find the plants. — Yours very truly, 

 •Charles C. Babington. 



To the same. 



Cambridge, June 8, 1877. 



Dear Sir, — I have never seen a Nitella without the coat; but 

 apaca^ to which Braun refers, "English Botany," 1070, from Cwm 

 Idwal, ought not to have it. My specimens from that lake are 

 without fruit. I have specimens from Llyn Coron in Anglesea, 

 which are either opaca or capitata. I suspect the former, as it has 

 the right nucules, but may or may not have had the coat. Your 

 Ashstead plant appears to be true syncarpa, and that from Mitcham 

 capitata; but here again we want information about the coating. 

 Look at the nucules. I have a duplicate copy of fasc. i. and ii. of 

 Braun, Rabenhorst, and Stizenberger's "Characeae Europeae," which 

 are at your service if you do not possess them. But I have only 

 single copies of fasc. iii. iv., which were published at Dresden in 

 1867 and 1870. I have also Wahlstedt's "Characeae Scandinaveae," 

 published at Lund in Sweden in 1874, and some previous years. I 

 do not know if any of these are now to be obtained, but fear not. 

 Neither do I know of anyone working or much interested in 

 Characeae. They have never been favourite plants with collectors. 

 Yours very truly, Charles C. Babington. 



♦ See "Manual" Nitella. 



