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REVISION OF THE GENUS N4J48 OF LINNAUS. 
By ALEXANDER Brauw, Ph.D., 
Professor of Botany in the University of Berlin. 
Tn May last I received specimens of a Chara, collected March 6, 1864, 
by Dr. Seemann, in the Dutch Island of Curacao, West Indies, and in 
the only freshwater spring of that colony, which rises at the foot of the 
famous stalactite caves of El Hato. This Chara proved to be a form 
of C. polyphylla, so widely diffused over both Americas, the East Indies, . 
and New Holland, and has been named var. Curassavica by me. In- 
asad with it was a Najas, which, fragmentary as it was, proved 
sufficient for determination. A comparison of this with other forms 
of Najas led me further and further, until I exhausted all the mate- 
rials existing in the Berlin herbaria, the herbarium of Dr. Sonder 
of Hamburg, and the East Indian one kindly communicated by Pro- 
fessor Miquel. The result of my examination has led to satisfactory 
results with respect to the definition of species, not to mention those 
relating to the vegetation, phyllotaxis, and ramification of the Najades, 
hitherto but imperfectly understood. 
The most important characters for the definition of species reside in 
the sheathing base of the leaves, as shown in the following sketch. 
FIG. FiG.2, FIGS. FIGA. Fic.5. 
“ED 
Fig. 1 pre is : of N. V deed fig. 2, to N. minor ; fig. 3,to N. bd var. 
; fig. 4, to N. faleiculata ; aud fig. 5, to N. gramin 
The teeth of the blade of the leaves, in regard to their greater or lesser 
prominence, also furnish good, though less important, characters. The 
point of each tooth, as shown in the second sketch, is always forme 
