A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



Britain a brand new species, should suffice to arouse the interest of a 

 few resident botanists. From the eastern boundary of the county to 

 Falmouth there are only five records for so common a species as Chara 

 fragilis, and from Bridgerule to Hayle, a good two-thirds of the county, 

 G. vu/garis, with three of its varieties, has only eight recorded stations. 

 The appended table shows that not a single Chara has been reported 

 from the Fowey division, and that only one species is known to occur 

 in the Lower Tamar area. No one can accept this as a correct index 

 of the Chara flora of those parts. 



As a British plant C. fragifera y Durieu, is quite unknown outside 

 the Lizard and Land's End divisions. Around Helston, on the Lizard 

 Downs, near Marazion, on Chy-an-hal and Hale Ager Moors, west of 

 Penzance, and on Tresco, one of the Scilly Islands, it can always be re- 

 lied on if the summer is not an abnormally dry one. 



C. polyacantha^ Braun, and C. baltica var. affinis, H. & J. Groves, 

 are confined to a restricted area west of the Lizard Head. 



C. hlspida, Linn., although generally distributed in other parts of the 

 country, has only been found at Swanpool near Falmouth and at Kynance 

 near the Lizard. 



Nitella hyalina, Agardh, as already stated, is one of the rarest of 

 British plants, a few square yards in the Loe Pool representing the area of 

 its known occurrence in the British Isles. 



N. graci/is, Agardh, was reported for the Goonhilly Down in the 

 PJbytofogfst, 1845, but in the absence of voucher specimens and recent 

 confirmation the statement must be accepted with caution. Those were 

 days when the Gharacece of this country were but little understood, and 

 it is almost certain some other species, probably N. opaca, was mistaken 

 for N. graci/is. 



Chara fragilit, Desv. i, 4, 6-8 

 var. barbate, Gant. 8 

 var. capillacea, Coss. & G. 8 



fragifera, Durieu. 7, 8 



- aspera, Willd. 6, 7 



var. destnacantba, H. & J. G. 



polyacantha, Braun. 7 



- baltica var. affin'u, H. & J. G. 



bispida, Linn. 6, 7 



fu/garit, Linn, i, 5, 7, 8 



Chara vulgaris, Linn. 



var. kn&bracteata, Kuetz. 5, 

 var. atrovireni (Lowe). 8 

 var. melanopyrena, H. & J. G. 



canescens, Loisel. 6, 7 

 Nitella grac'iRi, Agardh. 7 ( ?) 



translucent, Agardh. 46, 8 



fiexllii, Agardh. i, 4-8 



opaca, Agardh. I, 2, 6, 7 



byalina, Agardh. 7 



MOSSES (Musci) 



Cornwall is exceptionally favoured by its physical conditions for 

 the growth of mosses. The moist air, warmed by the Gulf Stream, 

 conduces to the growth of many southern species that find here con- 

 ditions similar to those which obtain in the south-west of Ireland ; and 

 a few south European species have in Cornwall their northern limit. 

 On the highlands of the Bodmin Moors a number of subalpine species 

 grow, and on the calcareous sand of Hayle and St. Minver, and the 

 serpentine formation of the Lizard, others grow which are absent from 



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