(254) 
The Chareae are alone included in the scope of this paper, and 
of the four genera, Chara is the only one so far collected in North 
America. 
The genus, as here divided, is represented in North America by 
50 species, besides many aberrant forms, some of which will 
doubtless be shown by further study and better material to be 
worthy of addition to the number. Of these 50 species, 1 is known 
from Greenland, 11 occur in Canada, 37 in the United States, 17 
in Mexico or Central America, and 8 in the West Indies. No 
one species is however known from all of these divisions, and this 
remains true even if Braun’s specific limits be accepted, in which 
case the nearest would be his C. gymnopus, which has its northern 
limit in Lake Champlain, is well represented in the United States 
and Mexico, and is much the predominant form in the West Indies 
and in Central America. 
CHARA L. Sp. Pl. 1156. 1753 
Charopsis Kiitz. Phyc. Gen. 319. 1843. (Type, Chura Brauniz 
C. C. Gmelin.) 
Annual or perennial algae, inhabiting fresh, brackish, or salt 
water, usually gregarious, often fetid. Stems composed of nodes 
icf ts former. exual paeene oe by aaiheridia aa 
oégonia, a latter in monoeci ous species lying above the antheridia. 
Stems uncorticated or corticated, the n er of cortical rows 1-3 
times the number of leaves, the primary cortical cells forming nodes 
and inter 8 eaves also uncortic or corticated, but all 
cortical cells formed from the node-cells of the leaf. Plants with 
or poe ooo incrustation; this is most frequent in corti- 
cated spec 
Type species: Chara vulgaris L. 
KEY TO THE SPECIES 
Stems entirely uncorticated. 
Stipulodes forming a single whorl. 
n + 1 + r. +t +} +. 
; posterior leaflets nearly 
r r 
always wanting. 
