550 
VI. CHARACEA3. 
[. Nitella . 
twice as many, intercalated in pairs, simple or forked ; terminal forks rather 
swollen. Nucules large, subglobose, with 9 striae.— Wallmann, Essai Earn. 
Charac. 14. 
Northern Island : Rupahi Lake, Auckland, Hochstetter {Herb. A. Braun). (Cosmo- 
polite.) 
2. N. Hookeri, Braun in Hook. Kew Journ. Bot. i. 199. Monoecious. 
Whorls lax, lower remote, upper forming lax comose heads, of 6-8 rays ; rays 
2-3-forked to or below the middle, one of them usually further divided ; 
ultimate articulations of about 3 joints, the first elongated, the rest shorter, 
forming a 2-celled mucronate apex. Nucules usually in pairs; crown short, 
obtuse. — Ckara australis, Tayl. in FI. Antarct., not of Brown. 
Northern Island : still waters, Bay of Islands, Colenso, J. D. H. ; Wellington, Ralph. 
(Tasmania, Australia, Kerguelen’s Land.) 
3. N. interrupta, Braun, mss. Monoecious. Sterile whorls remote, 
of 6 rays ; rays usually 4-5 times forked to the middle, divisions 2-3-cellular ; 
fertile whorls minute, contracted, arranged in interrupted spikes. Spores 
solitary on the secondary branches, brown, with 7 striae ; globules in the pri- 
mary branches. — Braun, mss. 
Northern Island: Waikate river, Telinek. 
2. CHARA, Linn. 
Articulations of the stem and branches formed of several series of cells, 
often coated with carbonate of lime. Crown of the nucule formed of 5 spread- 
ing cells. 
Less frequent in the southern than in the northern hemisphere. 
1. C. fcetida, A. Braun. Monoecious. Stems fine, striate, brittle, 
coated with carbonate of lime, of twice as many tubes as branches (in 2 series) ; 
upper branchlets of one tube, without external tubes. Nucules with 13 striae, 
as long as 2 of the branchlets that subtend them. Stipules or short branch- 
lets at the base of each whorl. — Wallmann, Essai Fam. Charac. 63. 
Northern Island: Bay of Islands, J. I). H. (Europe, etc.) 
2. C. contraria, A. Braun. Monoecious. Stem coated with carbonate 
of lime, finely striated, minutely papillose or strigillose ; the primary tubes 
prominent, hence exposing the papillose surfaces, which in C. fcetida, to which 
this is closely allied, are hidden between the secondary tubes. — Wallmann, 
Essai Fam. Charac. 64. 
Northern Island, Colenso. (Cosmopolite.) 
Order VII. LICHENES. 
Perennial plants, of comparatively small size, low organization, and very 
various forms, rarely green in colour, consisting chiefly of a horizontal ascend- 
ing or erect, simple or branched, foliaceous membranous coriaceous cartila- 
ginous or crustaceous or powdery vegetative portion, called the thallus, 
which bears organs of fructification. The thallus usually spreads horizon- 
