m 



198 CHARGE AUSTRALES ET ANTAROTICJE. 



7. N. heterophylla. 



Chara heterophylla, A. Br. in Linnœa, 17. p. 113. Plant. Preiss. 2. p. 145. 

 Of thèse two species the fructification is unknown. 



8. N. congesta. 



Chara congesta, R. Brown, Prodr. p. 346. A. Br. in Linnœa, Yî.p. 114. 

 Plant. Preiss. 2. p. 146. 



One of the most remarkable and easily distinguished species, which, 

 since Eobert Brown, seems not to hâve been collected again. It is 

 probably diœcious, but I hâve not seen the maie plant. 



c, Nitellœ flaiellatœ ; foliis simpliciter, rarius repetito divisis, segmentis 

 ii ltimis 3 -4-articulatis. (Omnes hornophyllœ.) 

 Europe possesses no species of this division, Australia two very distinguished 

 ones ; the third Antarctic species is allied in its habit to some species of the section 

 Mucronatœ. 



9. N. gelatinosa \ dioica ; caule validiore elongato ; verticillis sterilibus 

 remotissimis, e foliis elongatis apice trifurcatis, segmentis brevis- 

 simis depauperatis 3-4-articulatis; verticillis fertilibus minimis, den- 

 sissime congestis, capitula minima oblonga gelatinosa, terminalia et 

 lateralia, formantibus, e foliis 8-9 prope basin simpliciter divisis, 

 segmentis 4-7, sequalibus, 3-4-articulatis, articulo primo elongato, 

 sequentibus abbreviatis, ultimo obtusiusculo ; seminibus solitariis, 

 coronula breviuscula, fasciis 8. 



Chara gelatinosa, A. Br. in Linnœa, 17 5 i?. 115. Plant. Preiss. 2. p. 146. 

 (S. microcephala ; caule foliisque tenuioribus, foliorum sterilium seg- 

 mentis elongatis, capitulis fructiferis minimis subglobosis. 

 Canning River, Preiss, 1841, No. 1880; at the Swan River, Drum- 

 mond, No. 12, in herb. Hook. ; ^. at the Swan River, Drummond, 

 No. 13, in herb. Hook. 



One of the most singular species, in wliich the différence between the 

 stérile and fertile whorls is the most remarkable. TVhile the stérile 

 leaves attain the length of one inch, the fertile ones, which form the 

 little heads, are only about \ millimètre long, the whole heads being only 

 1 or 1^ m. in diameter. The gelatinous covering of thèse little heads 

 is in no species more developed. The seeds belong to the least in the 

 genus, although they appear very large in comparison to the whorls 

 which produce them ; the dark red-brown nut of them is about .20 m. 

 long. The antheridia are considerably larger than the seeds, being 

 scarcely surpassed by the segments of the leaves which bear them. 



