126 The Essex Naturalist
TL(52)74 ??????? 19 Belchamp Brook, c. 1965. Coll: by Stanley T. Jermyn,
det: Eric Saunders. Flora of Essex, p.45. 1974.
TQ(51)88 877,871 18 Prittlewell, Priory Park, fishing pond, August. 1991.
Tim Pyner.
TL(52)81 ??????? 19 Kelvedon, c. 1850. Dr Ezekiel G.Varenne. Flora of
Essex, p.406. 1862.
TQ(51)98 922,856 18 Thorpe Bay, just north of the railway line, in sandy-
silty bottomed pond with Ranunculus aquatilis, 25
June 1981. Coll: John.F.Skinner, det: K.J.Adams,
ditto, but less plentiful. 31 August 1986. Coll: & det:
Tim Pyner.
TM(62)11 ??????? 19 Clacton-on-Sea, brackish dykes, Coll: A. Steward.
date ? det: George C.Brown.
Herbarium: Little, Cambridge Herbarium (CGE).
TM(62)22 ??????? 19 Kirby, near Walton-on-the-Naze, June 1877. Dr.
Baker.
Natural History Museum Herbarium. Atlas
Specimen No. 1236.
??????? Walton Hall, Walton-le-Soken, July 1840. William
L.P.Garnons (as C. nidifica).
Specimen in Saffron Walden Museum Herbarium
(SWN).
3b Chara vulgaris var. crassicaulis (Schleicher, ex A. Braun.) Kutz.
This, the rarest of the 'common' varieties of var. vulgaris, in its typical form, is
distinctive in having tight bunches of short stumpy, incurved branchlets, an extra
stout axis with very broad secondary cortex rows, very long internodes, and
cylindrical, blunt-ended stipulodes, bract cells and spines. (See Fig.l).
TQ(51)49 ??????? 18/19?Epping Forest, in a pond, 1875. James Groves.
or Natural History Museum Herbarium (BM).
TL(52)40 Atlas Specimen No. 1381.
3d Chara vulgaris var. longibracteata (Kutz.) J. Groves & Bullock-Webster.
This variety is characterised by its very long bracteoles and adaxial bract cells (to 6x
length of oogaonium), but it intergrades with var. vulgaris and var. papillata, some
forms having very long supine spine cells, others having vestigial spine cells. If a
specimen has the extra long bracteoles it has been recorded as this variety, regardless
of spine cell length, though where possible this has been recorded. The extent to
which bracteole length and spine development are under genetic or environmental
control, is not yet known, but these forms seem to interchange over the space of a
few months in the same pond. They could be replacing each other in a sequence
from genetically different oospores, or the same plants could be changing their
morphology in response to environmental change.