80 BRITISH CHAROPHYTA. 



Fig. 5). From the thickest part of the node six spread- 

 ing branchlets are produced (see Fig. 1). Some of the 

 thickened nodes, which we thought were probably the 

 terminal ones, are truncated above, and in these cases 

 the branchlets take a more upward direction (see Fig. 7). 



3. The production on the stem-cortex and on the 

 branchlets, which are ecorticate, of small more or less 

 symmetrically clustered club-shaped processes (see 

 Fig. 6). These are quite unlike the spine-cells of Chara 

 in that they are not separate cells, but protuberances 

 from the cortical-cells and branchlet-segments, with 

 which they communicate at their base. They are 

 therefore similar to the club-shaped protuberances on 

 the fronds of some species of Caulerpa. In many of the 

 fossil specimens the lower parts only of these protu- 

 berances are preserved. Among the other types present 

 in the Dorsetshire material is one with a corticate stem, 

 but in other respects somewhat Nitella-lihe in its 

 growth. This type was found well-preserved in a single 

 block of chert. Among the remains there are many 

 detached fruits widely different in form and size, one 

 •of them extremely minute — the smallest Charophyte- 

 fruit, I believe, which has yet been discovered. 



In 1891 Saporta (19) described and figured, under 

 the name of C. Maillardi, from the Piirbeck Beds of 

 Jura, some curious pyriform organisms, with numerous 

 longitudinal ridges, which appear, from the figures, to 

 bear some resemblance to the utricles of Clavator. In 

 1865 Hear (4) described and figured under the name of 

 C. Jaccardi a small ellipsoid fruit also from the Purbeck 

 Beds of Jura. In Purbeck marl, obtained near Hadden- 

 ham (Bucks), Dr. Morley Davies found some specimens 

 of a very small ellipsoid-biconical fruit. 



Wealden. — In this series Charophyte remains are 

 not common. As exemplified by specimens in the 

 British Museum from Ecclesbourne near Hastings, for 

 the first time we here meet with the large spherical 

 fruits of the type of C. medicaginula, Brongn. — a type 

 which with little modification occurs in many of the 



