200 ENGLISH BOTAXT. 



company with Ch. aspera. Little Sea, Studland, Dorset, Mr. Bolton 

 King. West Cornwall. Ireland, D. Moore, no exact locality given. 

 The male plant only is in Professor Babington's Herbarium. 



England, Ireland. Annnal. Summer, Autumn. 



Very variable in size, being from 1 inch to 18 inches or more, and 

 with the branchlets -J- to 1 inch long. The smaller forms seem to be 

 more densely spinous than the larger, judging from the specimens in 

 the Char. Europ. Exsicc. and the Char. Scandinav. Exsicc. I have not 

 seen any British specimen. 



The shape of the nucules is apparently variable. I have described 

 them from the published sets above mentioned. \Yallroth figures them 

 linear-fusiform, and describes them as ' oblongo-linear.' Babington 

 gives 'narrowly-oblong,' and Groves 'oval,' as their form. 



The globules are very rarely seen. "Wallroth says he never saw 

 them, and A. Braun says that in Germany and Scandinavia the 

 female plant only is found, and the fructification is parthenogenetic. 



[The male plant of this species is excessively rare in Europe, but the 

 hermaphrodite plant is not unlikely to be found, as in N. America a 

 monoecious state of it has been discovered and described as a distinct 

 species (C. evoluta) by Dr. Allen, but it is certainly nothing more 

 than the hermaphrodite plant of C. crinita, and further supports the 

 opinion expressed under N. syncarpa var. opaca, that the character 

 monoecious or dioecious, unless accompanied with such distinctions as 

 cannot be regarded as correlated with sex, is not a specific character, 

 especially in such a group as this, where the species vary exceedingly, 

 and the characters within certain limits are most unstable, and even 

 when constant in certain localities, are possibly only conditional upon 

 the depth, temperature, exposure, and chemical constituents of the 

 water they grow in. C. altaica, Braun, is also the hermaphrodite 

 plant of C. crinita. Not having seen fresh British specimens, my 

 drawing was made partly from the Irish specimen, and partly from 

 Continental ones. — N. E. B. 



Bearded Chara. 



0. Stem with twice as many rows of cortical cells as there are 

 branchlets in a whorl ; stipule cells in two ichorls, papillate, ovoid, or 

 setaceous.'] 



SPECIES V.-C HARA TOMENTOSA. Linn. 



Plate 1913. 



Braun, Eabenh. & Stiz. Char. Europ. Exsicc. Nos. 8, 9, 35, 36. 

 Nordst. & WaMst. Char. Scand. Exsicc. Nos. 30, 31, 50, 50b, 51, 52, 53, 54, 88, 89. 

 Chara tomentosa, Linn, Sp. PL ed. i. p. 1156. Homemann, Fl. Danica, t. 1941. Bmzel, 

 Obs. Char. pp. 13 and 20. Agardh, Syst. Alg. p. 127. Eupr. in Beitr. zur Pflanz. 



