( 267 ) 
Chara intermedia A. Br. (not ‘the oldest name) has been re- 
ported from America by several authors, and many sheets so named 
are in the Allen herbarium, the range thus assigned being from 
Maine, Quebec, and Alaska, to New Jersey, Texas, Mexico, South- 
ern California, and even Chile. A careful examination of every 
determinable sheet so named in the Allen herbarium has enforced a 
profound conviction that this species is not found in America. The 
true C, zxtermedia should be characterized, as distinguished from 
C. contraria, by better developed stipulodes and spine-cells, by 
having all the leaflets at sterile nodes nearly equally developed, and 
the posterior at fertile nodes not greatly reduced; the odspores 
should be dark-brown, 0.66—0.82 mm., very rarely under 0.7 mm. 
long, 11-striate. The American plants usually have inconspicuous 
stipulodes; spine-cells are extremely rare ; the leaflets can very rarely 
be considered equal, and then only when all are very small; the pos- 
terior bracteoles are greatly reduced; repeated measurements of 
odspores, apparently fully mature and from widely separated local- 
ities, gave lengths from 0.51-0.665 mm., mostly 0.58-0.65 mm., 
only two getting within the minimum limits for the species. They 
are, moreover, much more slender than the European plants. On 
the contrary, so far as can be judged from dried material, the plants 
have the pinkish-green color of C. zztermedia, the odspores are 
dark-brown and never have the sooty color so common in C. con- 
trarta, and there are 11 or 12 striae. None of the three collection 
numbers doubtfully assigned to this continent by Braun have been 
seen, but from his description, and the examination of plants un- 
doubtedly similar from kindred localities, it is believed they also are 
to be excluded from the species. It is hard to believe that they 
really represent C. contrarza, but that is certainly their nearest 
affinity, and they are so placed for the present. 
C. hispida L. is reported from New York State, but no Ameri- 
can material so assignable has been seen, and it is not here included. 
13. CHARA BALTICA (Hartm.) Fries & Asp.; Bruz. Obs. Gen. 
ar. I1, 19. 1824 
C. hispida baltica Hartm. Handb. Skand. Fl. 376. 1820. 
Monoecious: marine, or in brackish water, 2-90 cm. high, not 
Meer incrusted; stems mostly 0.6-0.8 mm. but reaching 1.5 mm. 
in diameter, with typical eae aia: the primary cortical 
rows projecting somewhat ond the secon ary; spine-cells num- 
erous on all stem-internodes, tone coe or in fascicles of 2-4, of 
