THE FERN-ALLIES OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 163 



The species are to be found in ditches, ponds and even pud- 

 dles. Indeed I on one occasion found the foot-prints of a rhino- 

 ceros in the middle of the jungle in the Dindings where water 

 had collected quite full of a species of Nitella, the fruit having 

 probably been brought in mud by the rhinoceros from some dis- 

 tance. The species seem to be generally widely distributed, and 

 occur all over the world. There are two ^genera represented in the 

 Malay Peninsula viz. Nitella and Cham. 



NITELLA. * 



Internodes of stem pellucid, without a covering of cortical 

 cells. No whorl of stipulodes below the whorl of branchlets. Nu- 

 cule with a crown of 10 small erect cells (coronula). 



N. acuminata, A. Braun, Kew Journ. Bot. I. p. 292. Fragmente 

 einer Monogr. cler_ Characeae, p. 



A very delicate thin plant monoecious. Leaves usually 

 8 in a whorl. Fruiting whorl short-leaved. Nucule with per- 

 sistent Coronula, the upper twice as long as the lower. 



Singapore, ditches in Tanglin (Ridley 9137). 



Distrib. All Tropics. 



N. pseudo flabellata, Braun lcc. p. 54. 



Yen- slender. The branches half an inch long, much 

 branched at the tops forming a dense bushy mass .25 in. wide. 

 Whole plant 1-2 ft. long. Monoecious, Nucule with short 

 coronula. 



Singapore, ditches at Galang (Ridley 10827). 



Distrib. Java, Borneo, Chittagong, China. 



N. microcarpa, Braun, Monats. der Berl. Akad. 1858, p. 357. 

 Fragmente, p. 71. PL ii. fig. 56-57. iii. fig. 78. 



A thin plant much branched, whorls crowded, densely 

 tufted at the ends, terminal ones long, 2 celled, Nucules very 

 minute oblong or subglobose, fuscous with 6 spirals. 



Dindings, Bruas (Ridley 7144) and G-unong Tungal 

 (Ridley 7144). In muddy water on a path in jungle and 

 rhinoceros tracks. 



Distrib. N. and S. America. 



Chara. 



Internodes of stem opaque, usually with a covering of slender 

 parallel cortical cells, and generally with 1 or two whorls of bracts 

 below each whorl of branchlets. Nucule with a crown of 5 erect or 

 spreading cells in one row. 



Whole world. 



R. A. Soc, No. 80, 1919. 



