Mr. C. C. Babington on the British species of Chara. 85 



Nitella gracilis, Agardh Syst. Alg. 1 25 ; Coss. et Germ. Fl. Par. 



683; Atl. t. 4 IE. 



A very small and slender plant, its branchlets spreading in a 

 lax open manner, and much longer than those of C. tenuissima. 

 Nucules subglobose, with four or five striae, large in proportion 

 to the plant. 



My judgement of this species is formed from the plate in 

 ' Eng. Bot/ and a small but good specimen of the original plant, 

 for which I am indebted to Mr. Borrer. 



Mr. Wilson's C. gracilis from Cwm Idwel is C. syncarpa. 



St. Leonard's Forest, Sussex, Mr. Borrer. 



Annual. September ? 



6. C. tenuissima (Desv.) ; monoecious, stem slender equal flexible 

 transparent, branchlets short in dense compact subglobose whorls 

 repeatedly divided into 3-7 segments, terminal segments mu- 

 cronate longer than the others, globules and nucules each so- 

 litary but together at the subdivisions of the branchlets with- 

 out bracts. 



C. tenuissima, Desv. " Journ. Bot. ii. 313 ;" Reich. ! Iconog. t. 792 ; 



A. Braun ! in Flora, xviii. 53 ; MutelFl. Franc, iv. 159. 



C. glomerata, A.Braunl in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2. i. 351, notN. glo- 



merata, Coss. et Germ. 

 C. batrachosperma, Reich. Iconog. t. 794. 

 Nitella tenuissima, Coss. et Germ. Fl. Par. 681 ; Atl. t. 41 F. 

 N. hyalina, Agardh ! Syst. Alg. 126, not JDeCand. 



A very small slender plant, its short much -divided branchlets 

 forming little globular compact masses which are often much in- 

 crusted. Nucules subglobose, with 6-8 striae, three times the 

 diameter of the branchlets and placed outside of them. Globules 

 much larger than the nucules. 



I have recently (Aug. 6, 1849) found a profusion of ripe nu- 

 cules and a few globules upon this plant in Bottisham Fen, and 

 with the assistance of Messrs. J. D. C. Sowerby and J. W. Salter 

 have succeeded in satisfactorily ascertaining their positions to be 

 in accordance with the section in which the plant is here placed. 



In peaty ditches and pits in the fens of Cambridgeshire. 



Annual. July, August. 



B. Tolypella (A.. Braun) . Globules placed laterally on the nodes 

 of the chief ray of the branchlets between the lateral rays 

 (bracts) which are always shorter than the chief ray. — Rays 

 of many gradually decreasing joints. 



Note. — This little group of singular plants presents more dif- 

 ficulty than either of the other sections, and I am very far from 

 being convinced that a correct view of it is taken below. My 



