320 THE MICROSCOPE. 



through the spherical capsule into the cavity of the 

 nuclear utricle ; a mass of protoplasm makes its appearance, 

 and this divides up into monads, or, as I first called them, 

 ' gonidia.' l 



"The movement of the rotating protoplasm in the 

 Characece is also very slow ; for, when it is viewed in the 

 long internodes of Nitella with a very low power, or even 

 with the naked eye, it seems hardly to move faster than 

 the foot of a Gasteropod ; still there is no positive evidence 

 that it moves round the cell after the manner of the latter, 

 although it would appear to possess the power of move- 

 ment per sc. Hence the question remains undecided, viz. 

 whether it moves round the cell by itself, or by the aid of 

 cilia disposed on the inner surface of the protoplasmic sac, 

 in like manner to those which appear to exist in the 

 abdominal cavity of Vaginicola crystallina, and which have 

 been seen in Closterium lunula." 2 



The stems and arms of Chara are tubular, and entirely 

 covered with smaller tubes, the circulation can mostly be 

 observed in these, as shown at Fig. 170. Any ordinary cut- 

 ting to obtain sections would squeeze the tube fiat, and spoil 

 it and the lining ; it is, therefore, better to avoid this, by 

 laying the Chara on smooth wood, just covered with 

 water: then, with a sharp knife, make suddenly a num- 

 ber of quick cuts across it, and so obtain the various 

 sections required. Wet a slip of glass, and turn the wood 

 over so as just to touch the water, and the sections 

 will fall from the wood on to the glass, ready for the 

 microscope. 



"The Chara tribe is most abundant in still waters or 

 ponds that never become quite dry ; if found in running 

 water, it is mostly met with out of the current, in holes or 

 side bays, where the stream has little effect, and never on 

 any prominence exposed to the current. If the Chara 

 could bear a current, its fruit would mostly be carried on 

 and be deposited in whorls ; but it sends out from its 

 variouo joints very long roots into the water, and these 

 would by agitation be destroyed, and then the plant 



(1) Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xvii. 1856. 



(2) In Plate I. No. 27, is represented the Moss gonida, assuming the amoeboid 

 form as described by Dr. HicKs in the Linnean Trans. 1862. 



