Mr. C. C. Babington on the British species of Chara. 89 



Stems slender, erect, flexible even when dry, smooth, not 

 opake, densely crowded, slightly branched, pale green. Lower 

 whorls rather distant, upper ones gradually closer, of 8-10 short 

 branchlets each with six nodes and a whorl of five bracts at each 

 node. Bracts usually as long as the internode. Nucules soli- 

 tary with thirteen striae and a prominent crown. My British 

 specimens are of the male plant only. 



Wallroth refers Pluknet's Irish plant to this with certainty ; I 

 have doubts. 



In stagnant ponds. Burdock Pool, Falmouth, Cornwall, Rev. 

 W. L. P. Garnons. 



b. Stem coated with twice as many tubes as there are branchlets in 

 each whorl. Branchlets coated, uppermost joints sometimes naked. 



12. C. vulgaris (Linn. ?) ; monoecious, stems scabrous finely stri- 

 ated brittle, upper part of the branchlets without external 

 tubes, bracts only on the inner side of the branchlets long : 

 two 2-4 times as long as the nucules, and two equaling them. 



C. vulgaris, Linn. Sp. PI. 1624 (in part) ; Eng. Bot. t. 336 ; Ag. 



Syst. Alg. 128 ; Hook. Eng. Fl. v. pt. 1. 246. 

 C. foetida, A. Braun " Fl. Bad. Crypt." Flora, xviii. 63; Ann. 



Sc. Nat. ser. 2. i. 354 ; Mutel Fl. Franc, iv. 162 ; Coss. et Germ. 



Fl.Par. 679; Atl. t. 37. 



Plant diffuse, almost always incrusted. Branchlets appearing, 

 at the first view, jointless, minutely pointed. Nucules with 

 thirteen strise and a short crown, accompanied by the globule. 

 Bracts thick. 



Varying greatly in appearance, size and roughness, sometimes 

 hispid, sometimes much denuded of the outer tubes in the upper 

 part. A very much condensed form is the C. montana (Schultz), 

 Reich. Fl. exsic. 2143. The Linnsean C. vulgaris appears to 

 include this and several other species. 



Ditches and streams : common. C. montana, Gilsland, Cum- 

 berland, Mr. W. Christy. 



Annual. June to August. 



13. C. hispida (Linn.) ; monoecious, stem thickened upwards 

 spirally sulcate rough brittle beset with setaceous spines, 

 branchlets elongated, bracts whorled (inner ones much longer), 

 nucules ovate shorter than the bracts solitary, accompanied by 

 a globule. 



C. hispida, Linn. Sp. PI. 1624 ; Eng. Bot. t. 436 ; Wallr. Ann. Bot. 

 187. t. 4 ; Hook. Eng. Fl. v. pt. 1 . 246 ; A. Braun in Flora, xviii. 

 66 ; Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. 2. i. 355 ; Mutel Fl. Franc, iv. 163 ; Coss. 

 et Germ. Fl. Paris. 679 ; Atl. t. 38 B. 



Stems opake, greenish white, usually incrusted, covered with 



