  Optical spectroscopy has been obtained for 179 objects that have been
previously identified as possible members of the cluster, that lack either
accurate spectral types or clear evidence of membership, and that are optically
visible (I<18). I have used these spectroscopic data and all other available
constraints to evaluate the spectral classifications and membership status of a
total sample of 288 candidate members of Chamaeleon I that have appeared in
published studies of the cluster. The latest census of Chamaeleon I now
contains 158 members, 8 of which are later than M6 and thus are likely to be
brown dwarfs. I find that many of the objects identified as members of
Chamaeleon I in recent surveys are actually field stars. Meanwhile, 7 of 9
candidates discovered by Carpenter and coworkers are confirmed as members, one
of which is the coolest known member of Chamaeleon I at a spectral type of M8
(~0.03 M_sun). I have estimated extinctions, luminosities, and effective
temperatures for the members and used these data to construct an H-R diagram
for the cluster. Chamaeleon I has a median age of ~2 Myr according to
evolutionary models, and hence is similar in age to IC 348 and is slightly
older than Taurus (~1 Myr). The measurement of an IMF for Chamaeleon I from
this census is not possible because of the disparate methods with which the
known members were originally selected, and must await an unbiased,
magnitude-limited survey of the cluster.
