CHARA ASPERA. 53 



Scotland : Kirkcudbright, Selkirk, Roxburgli, Had- 

 dington, Fife and Kinross, Perth, W., M., & K, Forfar, 

 Aberdeen, N., Easterness (Nairn), Argyll, Ebudes, M., 

 €aitlmess, Sutherland, W., Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland. 



Ireland : Kerry, S. & N., Cork, W., M. & B., Clare, 

 Kilkenny, Wexford, Queen's Co., Galway, S.E., W. & 

 N.E., King's Co., Kildare, Wicklow, Dublin, Meath, 

 Westmeath, Longford, Mayo, E. & W., Sligo, Leitrim, 

 Cavan, Fermanagh, Donegal, W., Tyrone, Armagh, 

 Down, Antrim, Londonderry. 



Channel Isles : Guernsey. 



First record : Greville, 1828. 



Outside the British Isles C. aspera occurs over most 

 of Europe, having been found in Norway, Sweden, 

 Finland, Russia, Demnark, Germany, Austria, Switzer- 

 land, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece ; in 

 Central Asia (Turkestan) ; in North- West Africa (Algiers), 

 and in North America (Newfoundland, N. United States 

 and the Mexican Boundary). It is not known from the 

 Southern Hemisphere. 



Of small stature, not usually more than. 30 cm. in height, 

 usually slender, often much incrusted and extremely brittle. 

 The incrustation in the more spiny forms gives the stems the 

 appearance of being stout. In well-grown ty^Dical forms the 

 slender habit and long tapering spine-cells give it a distinctive 

 appearance, and when not incrusted it is an extremely beautiful 

 plant. The spine-cells are, however, sometimes inconspicuous, 

 when it may bear a superficial resemblance to G. fragilis and 

 C delicatula, and extreme forma in which the spine-cells, stipu- 

 lodes and bract-cells are stout and bluntish are in the sterile 

 state not always easy to distinguish from G. delicatula. Speaking 

 generally, G. aspera is a more slender and weaker plant than either 

 of the two species mentioned, the branchlets are less strongly 

 incurved below and are often spreading at the tips. It is of a 

 less intense green and lacks the firm hard look of those species. 

 A form with unusually long spine-cells, stipulodes and bract- 

 cells, var. capillata Braun, was collected by W. Wilson at Holy- 

 head. We have not seen another plant quite so extreme, but 

 very long-spined forms are not infrequent. 



