Halsted.] 174 [March 5, ~ 
ical, on very short leaves which form a dense head at the base. of the — 
long sterile leaves; crown very small and pointed; spiral bands prom- 
iment; spore dark, reddish brown. 
This attractive species is easily distinguished by its dicecious char- 
acter and fertile heads. The only American specimens which we 
have seen were collected by Dr. Robbins in a canal at Uxbridge, 
Mass. It is mentioned by Mr. Allen! as being found in ‘‘small 
streams on Long Island.” It is evidently one of our rarer species; 
though throughout Europe it is wide spread and comparatively com- 
mon. No. 26 of Braun, Raben. and Stiz. Exsic., excepting its im- 
maturity, agrees in all respects with our male specimens. Among 
foreign specimens, the female plants are subject to considerable vari- 
ation while the male form is quite constant. Nordstedt and 
Wahlstedt’s “forma longifolia” most nearly agrees with ours, but it 
does not have the fertile heads of more than half the size of the 
Uxbridge plants. 
The male plants of this species are to be distinguished from those 
‘ of the preceding, by their clusters of antheridia being surrounded by 
mucus. 
Nitella gelatinosa var. gigantea. 
Plants monecious, very large, slightly branched; stem 2.—2.5 mm. 
broad; whorls of two kinds: sterile and fertile, the former consisting 
of 5-6 simple, broad cells 5-6 cm. long, 2-2.2 mm. broad, ending in 
obtuse tips; the fertile whorls contracted into a dense spike and en- 
cased in a thick mass of jelly; fertile spikes 1.5-2.5 em. long, 1- 
1.2 cm. broad. Antheridia surrounded by an involucre of short 
bracts. Sporangia .65-.80 mm. long, 7—-10-striate, spiral cells thick 
walled, crown deciduous. 
In this variety we have the largest American representative of the 
genus. It differs from the typical form, Nitella gelatinosa A. Braun 
“ Charae Preissianae” in Linnaea, 1843, p. 115, and “ Charae Aus- 
trales and C. Antarcticae” in Hook. Jour. Bot., p. 198, in being more 
than double the size of the latter. Kiitzing figures a number of var- 
ieties of N. gelatinosa in his Tabulae Phycologicae; and his var. V. 
podostachya, which is the most like our plant, is about one-fourth its 
size. Our plants are monecious; his is figured as dicecious. No 
representatives of NV. gelatinosa are given in either Braun, Raben. 
and Stiz. Exsic., or Nordstedt and Wablstedt’s Scand. Characee. 
1 “ Notes on Characex.’’? T. F. Allen in Torrey Bulletin, 11, 3 (1871). 
