Nitella Madagascariensis, nov. spec., with notes on the Charophyta of Madagascar

Our knowledge of the Charophyta of Madagascar is mainly based on the rich and well-prepared collection made by Mr TH. B. BLOW, who visited the eastern central part of the island in the early months of 1924 ¹). The 384 dried specimens and a considerable number of portions of the plants preserved in formalin were determined by the well-known authority on the Charophyta, the late JAMES GROVES, who published the results of his work in the Journal of the Linnean Society (Botany), vol. XLVIII, 1928. This paper contains the descriptions of 5 new species and 3 new varieties of Nitella. Before this basic paper on the Charophyta of Madagascar was published, only very few publications appeared. As far as I know the first Madagascarian species to be recognized was ”Chara ceylonica WILLD.“, described by BOJER in the ”Hortus Mauritianus“ (1837, p. 427). The specimen was not seen by BRAUN, but he placed it in his large species C. gymnopus as subspecies C. Commersonii (1868, p. 872). BRAUN also states in the same work (l.c., p. 785) that he saw another specimen from Madagascar collected by GOUDOT, but did not mention it elsewhere in ”Die Characeen Afrika’s“, nor has he cited the two specimens in his ”Fragmente zu einer Monographic der Characeen“ (1882). Though the latter work forms the starting point for the study of the Charophyta of almost every country all over the world, the name Madagascar is not to be found in it.