CHARACEJ-. 191 



be only 7-8-striate as in N. nidifica, not 10-striate as stated ; their 

 shape also is globose or subglobose as in N. nidifica, and lastly the 

 habit, colour, size, branching, obtuseness and number of the cells of 

 the branchlets is exactly as in N. nidifica. From N. intricata and its 

 var. prolifera it is at once distinguished by the very obtuse apical 

 cell of its branchlets, besides which N. intricata has the sterile ones 

 branched. It is very much nearer to N. glomerata from which it 

 chiefly differs in its nearly globose nucule, which is about as broad as 

 long, whilst in N. glomerata the nucule is ellipsoidal, being distinctly 

 longer than broad, and often half as long again as broad ; the 

 branchlets and their rays, or bracts, are also rather more incurved 

 and more obtuse than in N. glomerata, and more constricted at the 

 nodes (this may be due to desiccation, although I do not think so, as 

 all the specimens examined were moistened in water in the same 

 manner). But for all this, it is questionable whether N. nidifica and 

 N. glomerata are more than varieties of each other ; but until the 

 plant is refound in the British Isles and becomes better known, it 

 appears better to treat it separately, therefore the synonymy of N. 

 nidifica is given for the Lough Neagh specimen, and a description is 

 added, taken exclusively from this specimen. 



Braun, Babenh. & Stiz. Char. Enrop. Exsicc. No. 32. 



Nordst & Wahht. Char. Scand. Exsicc. Nos. 84, 85, 86a, 86b. 



Nitella nidifica, Agardh, Syst. Alg. p. 125. Kiitz. Phyc. Gener. p. 318 ; Phyc. Germ. 



p. 255 ; Sp. Alg. p. 517 ; and Tab. Phyc. Vol. VII. p. 14, t. 37, f. i. A. Braun, 



Consp. Char. Europ. p. 3. 

 N. Stenhammariana, Wallm. in Kongl. Vet. Akad. Handl. Stockh. p. 271. 

 Tolypella nidifica, Leonhardi in Brunn, Verhandl. p. 176 (footnote), and p. 214. 



Wahht. Monog. Sver. Norg. Char. p. 21. A. Braun, Fragm. Monog. Char. p. 93. 



Sydow, Europ. Char. p. 34. 

 Chara nidifica, Both, Catalecta, fasc. II. p. 126, note under C. intricata. Bruzel. Obs. 



Char. pp. 17 and 23 (excluding syn. C. nidifica, Sm.). Baiter in Eeport of London 



Bot. Exchange Club for 1867, p. 16 ; and in Journ. Bot. 1868, p. 74. Bupreckt 



in Beitr. zur Pflanz. des Russ. Reich. 1845, dritt. liefer, p. 8. 

 C. flexilis, var. nidifica, Hartm. Scand. Fl. ed. 4, p. 358. Fries, Summ. Veg. Scand. 



p. 60. 

 C. flexilis, var. marina, Wahlenb. Fl. Suec. p. 718 (partly). 

 C. flexilis, var. prolifera, Wallroth, Comp. Fl. Germ. Vol. II. p. 105 (partly). 

 C. Stenhammariana, Wallm. in Add. Liljeblad Svensk. Fl. ed. 3, p. 686. 

 Conferva nidifica, Muller, Fl. Danica, t. 761. 



Monoecious. Dark olive ? drying blackish. Stem moderately 

 stout, unencrusted, without cortical cells or spine-cells or stipule-cells. 

 Branchlets 6 to 8 in a whorl, those of the sterile whorls unbranched, 

 of 3 to 5 cells, the terminal cell very obtuse (truncately-rounded) ; 

 fertile whorls in dense heads, terminating the stem and branches, 

 branchlets 3-5-celled, very obtuse, strongly incurved, bearing at the 



