82 Mr. C. C. Babington on the British species of Chara. 



but confidently referred by Professor Agardh, when in the year 

 1833 we had the pleasure and advantage of his company in an 

 excursion into the fens, to his C. hyalina. Owing to the total 

 absence until recently of nucules or globules from the specimens 

 obtained, this plant has not, I believe, been published as a native 

 species, although very many named samples of it have been dis- 

 tributed amongst botanists by Professor Henslow and myself. In 

 this paper I have identified it with the C. tenuissima (Desv.), as 

 is indeed done by Agardh, although he has preferred the name 

 of C. hyalina ; and have added to the list the C. polyspermia 

 (A. Braun), C. syncarpa (Thuil.), C. mucronata (A. Braun), C. 

 prolifera (A. Braun), C. Borreri (Bab.), and C. crinita (Wallr.), 

 thereby raising the number of our species to sixteen. 



All these species, except two, are preserved in the herbaria of 

 Prof. Henslow and myself, and as neither of us has paid any pe- 

 culiar attention to this genus, but only collected such specimens 

 as came accidentally under our notice, it is highly probable that 

 several additions to the list will soon be made, and it is chiefly 

 with the view of leading to such discoveries that it is now pub- 

 lished. 



In Prance, according to the list given by Lamotte (Cat. des 

 PI. Vase, de PEurope centrale) in 1847, nineteen species are 

 found ; in Germany we learn from the same book that there are 

 eighteen species. Reichenbach (PI. Germ. exc. 148 and 843) in 

 1833 described sixteen German species; and Pries (Summa Veg. 

 Scand. 60) records fifteen species as natives of Scandinavia, but 

 adds the remark, " spec, nondum pi. explor." 



Since a considerable part of this paper was written, a valuable 

 memoir by Prof. A. Braun has appeared in the f Kew Miscellany ' 

 (i. 193), entitled " Charse australes et antarcticse," but including 

 remarks upon the differences between the supposed genera Chara 

 and Nitella, and pointing out new characters for their distinction. 

 Notwithstanding the apparent value of these characters, I have 

 thought it better to retain the name of Chara for the whole of 

 the group until they have been carefully studied in the living 

 plants, and their constancy and universality more fully proved. 

 They are prefixed to the usual sectional characters in the en- 

 suing arrangement of the species, in which I have followed that 

 given by Prof. Braun in the above-mentioned memoir. I have 

 also largely availed myself of the same distinguished botanist's 

 valuable paper in the ' Plora, oder Botanische Zeitung ' of Re- 

 gensburg (xviii. 49), and his " Esquisse monographique du genus 

 Chara " in the ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles ' (ser. 2. i. 350), 

 and have found the account of the species given by Mutel in his 

 !■ Plore Prancaise ' (iv. 159), and the plates in the l Atlas de la 

 Plore de Paris ' by Cosson and Germain, very useful. 



