INTEODUCTION. 13 



expresses himself as convinced that many barren areas 

 in Spain might be rendered fertile by utilising the 

 large accumulation of decayed Chara-debris at present 

 allowed to go to waste. Referring to other purposes 

 served by these plants, he says : "Another interesting 

 use of the Charophytes not mentioned by any author 

 is that seen at Daimiel, where in a pool of salt water 

 for many years people have bathed, attributing the 

 cure of their maladies to the action of the deposit of 

 saltpetre on the banks, the ' saltpetre ' being the 

 white masses of dry Chara which surroimd the pool." 

 He is, moreover, of opinion that the Charophytes are of 

 great importance in fish-culture, having observed in a 

 number of lakes that tench and other fish make curious 

 nests among the Charophytes, in which they find abun- 

 dant food, there being " a whole world of aquatic 

 insects and crustaceans," and that they prefer them to 

 other water-plants. 



"When all has been said, however, it would appear 

 that the profitable uses to which Charophytes can be 

 turned are, at the best, few or restricted. 



The' first mention of the name "Chara" 



Origin of appears, so far as we can ascertain, in 



J^^^-f ■ Cesar's ' De Bello Civili ' III, 48, 1-2 



names. (^- ^*-* B.C.), where it is applied to a plant, 



the identity of which is uncertain. That 

 it was nothing like the plant to which we now apply the 

 name, is evident from the statement that it was made 

 with the addition of milk into a kind of bread ! Pliny, 

 'Nat. Hist.' XIX. 41 (c. a.d. 77),. in discoursing on 

 cabbages, apparently refers Caesar's plant to Lapsana, 

 a name applied by the earlier botanists to several kinds 

 of Gruciferse, as well as to the plant now bearing the 

 name. By others it has been variously referred to 



