THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 26. FEBRUARY 1850. 



IX. — On the British species o/*Chara. By Charles C. 

 Babington, M.A., F.L.S. &c * 



Since 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 Charce 

 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. Fl. v. pt. 1. 242) in the year 1833, 

 for HassalFs 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'j 3. ni- 

 difica ; 4. gracilis ; 5. vulgaris ; 6. Hedwigii ; 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. Hedwigii under the name of C. fragilis ; 

 and another by Mr. D. Moore (Lond. Journ. Bot. i. 43) as the 

 C. latifolia (Willd.). The former botanist has also greatly elu- 

 cidated the obscure subject of specific distinctions in this genus 

 by his elaborate remarks in the same work under C. Hedivigii 

 (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. V(d. v. 6 



