S [ 1070 ]
CHARA flexilis.
Smooth Chara.
M0NANDR1A Menogynia.
G en. C har. Cal. none. Cor. none. Anthera feffile.
Style none. Berry with many feeds.
S pec. Char. Smooth, tranfparent, without prickles.
Leaves cylindrical, blunt with a minute point,
often branched.
Syn . Chara flexilis. Linn. Sp. P I. 1624. Sm. FI.
Brit. 6. Hudf. 398. With. 3. Hull. 202.
C. tranflucens minor flexilis. D ill, in Raii Syn. 133.
Conferva nidifica. FI. Dan. t. 761.
W» » E have re■ceive d tmhis C' hara from the n' ei. ghbo1urhood of
Yarmouth by favour of Mr. D. Turner. The plants fent by
that gentleman in April 1800 had only female fructification,
whereas others in April 1802 were furnifhed with antherae
alone, fo that this fpecies fhould feem to be dioecious. It is
fuppofed to be annual.
The herb is quite fmooth, green and pellucid, apparently
not liable to be incrufted like the vulgaris and hifpida. Stem
round, branched, of an equal thicknefs, and hollow. Leaves
whorled, fhaped like the branches, and often fubdivided;
they are alfo, like the ftem and branches, furnifhed with a few
remote contracted joints, or tranfverfe partitions. The extremities
are blunt, tipped with a little point. Anthers in the
forks of the upper leaves, folitary, curioufly cracked or reticulated.
Germens in fimilar fituations on a different plant,
ovate, fpirally flriated, fometimes 2 together.
The Rev. Mr. Williams has communicated to us, (from
fome pools near Shrewsbury,) along with this, a much larger
variety, the Chara tranflucens major jlexilis of Vaillant, not
heretofore obferved in Britain. We at firft judged it a diftinCt
fpecies; but. our intelligent correfpondent obtained from the
fame fpot the following year fpecimens of an intermediate fize,
which prove it a mere variety of the plant we have been de-
fcribing.