THE ANNALS 
MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
[SECOND SERIES.] 
No. 26. FEBRUARY 1850. 
IX.—On the British species of Chara. By Cuaruns C. 
Basineton, M.A., F.L.S. &.* 
Srnce the genus Chara ceased to be considered as Phanerogamic 
and was placed as a Natural Order of Cryptogamic plants, its 
species have been excluded from our popular floras, and conse- 
quently suffered undeserved neglect from British botanists. The 
kindness of my friend Professor Henslow having recently placed 
in my hands a set of foreign specimens of Chara, which had been 
sent to him by Professor Alex. Braun of Freiburg in Breisgau, 
together with that botanist’s notes upon some English Chare 
submitted to his inspection, I have been induced to attempt the 
arrangement of our native species in a more complete manner 
than has as yet been done. 
Since the time of Smith, who described all the British species 
known to him in his ‘ English Flora’ (i. 6) which was published 
in 1824, only one complete account of our species has appeared, 
viz. that by Hooker (Eng. FI. v. pt. 1. 242) im the year 1833, 
for Hassall’s notice of them (Brit. Freshwater Alg. i. 94) cannot 
be considered as original. In that work Sir W. J. Hooker has 
characterized eight species, viz. 1. translucens; 2. flexilis ; 3. ni- 
difica ; 4. gracilis ; 5. vulgaris ; 6. Hedwigit ; 7. aspera ; 8. hispida. 
More recently two have been added to this list, one by the Rev. 
M. J. Berkeley (Eng. Bot. Suppl. t. 2824) as the C. pulchella 
(Wallr.), which is considered in this paper as forming one species 
in combination with C. Hedwigit under the name of C. fragilis ; 
and another by Mr. VD. Moore (Lond. Journ. Bot. 1. 43) as the 
C. latifolia (Willd.). The former botanist has also greatly elu- 
cidated the cbscure subject of specific distinctions in this genus 
by his elaborate remarks in the same work under C. Hedwigit 
(Eng. Bot. Suppl. 2762). We have still to add an elegant little 
plant detected many years since in the fens of Cambridgeshire 
by Professor Henslow, and formerly supposed to be C. gracilis, 
* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Jan. 10, 1850. 
Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. v. 6 
