some botanists have attempted to trace a genealogy from the green 

 Algae, through the Characeae, to the higher Cryptogams, looking 

 upon the Characese as an intermediate group which still holds on in 

 the struggle for existence. 



These plants grow wholly under water, generally in shallow, but 

 sometimes in deep water (over six feet). Usually the seeds ger- 

 minate in the spring and the mature plants bear fruit early in the 

 fall, but some species are perennial, in deep water, throwing out 

 young shoots in the spring from old thickened nodes or from small 

 subterranean bulbs which have been filled with starch the previous 

 year. Other species germinate late in the season, live over winter, 

 and mature the following spring. Numerous observations are re- 

 quired to determine the habits of our American species, many of which 

 are peculiar to this country. It is certain that in America, as in 

 Europe, a locality may cease to furnish a species for some years, 

 after which it will reappear, due, probably, to the persistence of the 

 little nutlets, whose hard shell resists for a long time external influ- 

 ences inimical to life. Species are wonderfully constant in their local- 

 ity, constant even in minute characteristics, and ponds or lakes lying 

 but a fe\v miles apart may contain species or varieties peculiar to 

 each, which seem never to encroach on the other. It is quite probable 

 that aquatic animals rarely, if ever, feed on these plants, and the seeds 

 do not seem to be disseminated by them. 



The strong, disagreeable odor (of sulphureted hydrogen), exhaled 

 by nearly all Characese, seems protective to the extent of causing them 

 to be let alone, but productive of a restricted habitat in some cases. 

 Some species, however, are everywhere common. Chara fragilis, 

 Desv., is constantly met with North, South, East and West, in cold 

 water and in hot springs hot enough to cook an egg ; this species is 

 cosmopolitan, found over the whole globe, even in Australia, which 

 otherwise has quite a distinct Chara-flora ; Chara foetida, A. Br., is 

 nearly as widespread; Ch. coronata, Ziz. , not so common in Europe, 

 is here very abundant and varied; of our peculiar species, the varie- 

 ties of Ch. gymnopus are most common, var. elegans, van Mich- 

 auxii, var. Humboldtii and Ch. sejuncta (very wide spread). 



Forms of Nitella polyglochin are almost characteristic of America 

 (microcarpa, megacarpa and intermediate forms). Nitella prelonga, 

 A. Br., is a pronounced Southern species, large and fine. 



It is yet too soon to speak positively of the geographical range 

 of our Charads; so little interest has been taken in them that sufficient 

 data are not at hand. 



