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XOTES ON TIIK BRITISH CHARACE.T: FOR 1887-9. 67
C. temdssima var. hatrachosperma, Rabeiili., Fl. Lusat. ii. p. IGG
{fide Braun).
C. U'Huu'tdma vars. hfitrachosperma & ramulosa, Gant. Oesterr.
Char. (1847), p. 10.
N, tenidssima var. batracJiosperma, Kuetz. Plivc. Germ. (1845),
p. 256; Rab. Deutscli. Krypt. Flor. (1847), p. 196.
N. hatrachosperma, Braun, Scliweiz. Char. (1847), p. 10, nomen
(non Agardh) ; Consp. Char. Europ. p. 2 ; Krypt. Flor. Schles.
p. 400 ; Fragmente Monog. Char. p. m t. 5, f. 131-2 ; Kuetz. Sp.
Alg. (1849), p. 515; Tab. Phyc. vii. (1857), t. 35, f. 1; Nordst.
Skand. Char, in Bot. Not. 1803, p. 36; Wahlst. Sver. & Norg.
Char. (1875), p. 20 ; Sydow, Europ. Char. (1882), p. 30; Migula
in Eab. Krypt. Flor. Deutsch. sect. 5 (1890), p. 184, f. 52-4.
Exsiccata:—x\reschoug, 150. Braun, R. & S. 78. Fries, Hb.
Norm. xvi. 100. Nordst. & Wahlst. 42. Rab. Alg. Sachs., 220 :=
{fide Nordst.).
Plant usually minute. Stem about •15-*2 mm. thick. Internodes
from once to twice the length of the branchlets. Branchlets
usually 8 in a whorl, mostly twice divided, sometimes in the sterile
whorls only once divided, and rarely in the fertile whorls one of the
tertiary rays again divided. Rays of the first forking 4-5 ; 2-3
again divided into 3-5 rays, the remainder usually simple. Tertiary
rays usually about half the total length of the branchlets, 2-celled,
the ultimate cell -OoS-'ll mm. long, •018--025 mm. thick at the
base, tapering to a sharp point. Fruit solitary, usually at the first
and rarely at the second forkings broadly ovoid, about '43 mm.
long, '29 mm. thick, coronula small. Oospore '23- -25 mm. long,
•21--22 mm. thick, slightly flattened when ripe, showing 7 strije,
side walls of the envelo2:)ing-cells becoming thickened, and remaining,
when the outer wall has decayed, standing out as wing-like
ridges on the oospore. Antheridia at the same nodes as the fruit.
Monoecious.
N. Nurdsteddana is one of the smallest species of the genus. It
is allied to N. tenidssimo, from which it may be distinguished by its
oospore having prominent wing-like ridges, and irregularly minutely
warty surface, which is shrivelled in appearance; by its fruiting at
the first forking of the branchlets, which is very exceptional in .V.
teiiids-siiiia ; by the less rigid habit ; by the more sharply-pointed
end-cells of the branchlets ; and usually by the proportionately
shorter intcrnodes.
The distribution of the species as recorded by Braun & Nordstedt
is :—Finland, Sweden, Germany, France, Spain and Italy,
also North America (Massachusetts), and Australia. It was discovered
in Britain by Mr. W. S. Duncan, in July, 1888, in a loch
near Obbe, in the Isle of Harris, Outer Hebrides, aud was foi-warded
to us by Mr. Arthur Bennett. The British plant is a small form
from 1-2 inches high. Dr. Migula, in the recently-published edition
of Rabenhorst's Krypt. Flor. Deutsch., describes four forms under
* The specimen in the British Museum is too bad to admit of idontificalion
without soaking out, so we liavc followed Nordstcdt in (juotiny it.
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