CHARACli^E. 189 



Yar. ft. prolifera. 

 Plate 1908. 



Nitella prolifera, Kiilz. Pliyc. Germ. p. 255. Wallm. in Kongl. Vet. Akad. Handl. 



Stockh. 1854, p. 269. A. Braun, Consp. Char. Europ. p. 3. Crepin in Bull. 



Soc. Bot. Belg. Vol. II. p. 130. Miiller in Bull. Soc. Bot. Geneve, 1881, p. 55. 



Baling. Man. ed. 8, p. 470. 

 N. fasciculata, var. robustior (printed " robuster " by a typog. error). A. Braun, 



Scbweiz. Char. p. 12. Kiitz. Sp. Alg. p. 517. 

 N. Borreri, Wallm. in Kongl. Vet. Akad. Handl. Stockh. 1854, p. 271. 

 Tolypella prolifera, Leonhardi " in Lotos, 18G3, p. 57 ;" and in Brunn, Verhandl. 



Vol. II. p. 176. Braun in Cohn, Krypt. Fl. Schles. Vol. I. p. 401 ; and Fragm. 



Monog. Char. p. 97. H. & J. Groves in Journ. Bot. 1880, p. 162, t. 209, f. 12. 



Sydoio, Europ. Char. p. 37. 

 Chara prolifera (Ziz. herb.), A. Braun in Ann. Sciences Nat. 2nd ser. Vol. I. p. 352 ; 



and in Flora, 1835, Vol. I. p. 56. 

 C. Borreri, Babing. in Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. ii. Vol. V. 1850, p. 87 ; and Man. Brit. Bot. 



ed. iii. p. 421. 

 C. nidifica, Borrer in Suppl. to Engl. Bot, 1834, Vol. II under No. 2762. 

 C. intricata, /3. robustior, Baker in Report of London Bot. Exchange Club for 1867 ; 



and in Journ. Bot. 1868, p. 73. 



Branches of the sterile whorls 6 to 20, very unequal, simple, more 

 pointed than in var. a ; the whole plant larger. 



In ponds, canals, and ditches. — Yar. a rare, and not persistent in its 

 localities. In a ditch at Hempstead Wood, Essex, 1861 (Mr. G. 

 Gibson) ; near Haslingfield (Prof. Babington, 1832), and Harston 

 (A. Bennett), Cambridgeshire ; " Livermere, near Bury St. Edmund's, 

 Suffolk, C. R. Leathes " (Mr. Borrer) ; Brammingham, Bedfordshire 

 (J. Saunders); Sedgefield, Durham (Rev. A. M. Norman); Dutton, 

 North Yorkshire (Mr. T. Comber); Goole, S.W. Yorkshire (T. Birks) ; 

 Durham and Dublin. — Yar. /3 extremely rare. Found by Mr. Borrer, 

 in 1827, in a marsh ditch near Brookside, Henfield, and in 1840 

 near Rye Farm, Henfield Level, Sussex ; [and has since been found 

 in Deeping Fen, Lincolnshire, by Mr. Beeby, who kindly sent living 

 specimens, from which plate 1908 was drawn; and in Cambridgeshire 

 and Huntingdonshire this year (1884), by Mr. Fryer. The plant 

 collected by Mr. D. Moore in the grand canal, Glasnevin, Dublin, has 

 been wrongly referred by Messrs. Groves to N. prolifera, it belongs to 

 N. intricata, as the sterile branchlets are branched, and not simple as 

 in the var. prolifera, which has not yet been found in Ireland.] 



England, Ireland. Annual. Spring. 



Yery similar to N. glomerata, but larger, especially in the " bird's- 

 nest-like " masses formed by the fertile whorls ; these also are broader, 



