3) Mo Mex Cornu bi also 
393.) 
354 CHARA FRAGIFERA AS A BRITISH PLANT. 
The very delicate, slender and flexible character, dicecism, and 
large compound bulbils—compared by their first describer to white 
strawberries in miniature, whence the name of the species—would seem 
sufficient to distinguish this from all the British Charas. The bulbils 
are said to be never absent, though less abundant on the male 
plant. 
C. fragifera is, no doubt, truly dicecious, and it is this Esai 
that must be ma inly r elied on to separate it from C. fr The 
slender non-crusted forms of this variable species which tis been 
called var. capillaris, Kiitz., var. tenuifolia, A. Br., C. capillacea, 
‘ &e i 
character of their stems and branches to C. Sragifera. From the 
fugacious nature of the antheridia also, specimens collected late in 
the season may appear to be wholly female. Whether the bulbils 
sand, Norway, be rightly referred by them to C. fragilis. This has 
large compound bulbils at the basal nodes by no means unlike those 
of C. fragifera. The bracts of the uucule are short in all the speci- 
mens of C. fragifera examined, whilst most of the slender varieties of 
C. fragilis aire 2g bracts, frequently much exceeding the nucule 
(var. longebracteat a, A. Br.); but this is not a character of much con- 
stancy in the pea, and therefore ought perhaps not to be strongly 
insisted upon 
The only certainly known — for C. fragiferaare in Western 
France. There it seems to have been first distinguished about 1825 
till 1859 that M. Durieu de Maisonneuve, after full opportunities of 
observation of the living plant for several years, described and dis- 
tinguished C. fragifera as ies.* He records it as very abundant in 
has since been found much more inland in the Departments of Vienne 
and Haute Vienne by the Abbé Chaboisseau (Bull. Soc. Bot. 
France x., p. 300), and in that of Loire-et-Cher, by Mr. E. Martin, 
as well as in several places in the North-west Departments of Finistére, 
otes-du-Nord, Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Inférieure, and "Deux-Sévres. 
It does a appear to reach as far east as the longitude of Paris. 
ens have been published in the Exsiccata of Billot, no. 
3273, are of Braun, Rabenh. and Stizenb., nos. 73a and 73b. There 
is no published 
The bulbils of sais species, and indeed of the Characee poor 
deserve a careful study. They have as yet been observed in but few, 
M. eu considered the C. connivens of Brébisson’s “ Flore de la Nor- 
mandie, aE 2, p. 336 (1849), to be the same as C. fragifera, and not the true 
C. connivens, Salzm., which was thou: ne roe Cay N. Africa. M. Cha- 
boisseau has, however, recently shown james, (Palle ger pony dork orang La 148, 
: 1ST), hat C. connie connivens occurs in oe oO ci) tom grits! ope 
give good fivur of the plant (tab. 1 the pencil of 
also Lloyd “ Flore France,” ed. 3 (1876), 
