14 ON THE MEDICINAL AND TOXICOLOGICAL 



whicli, the reader may consult the Cliarleston Medical Journal, Jan. 

 1851. The little filamentous bodies found in the reproductive or- 

 gans of mosses, hepatics, and fuci, are endowed with motion, and are 

 known as hnjozoaires, and by others as phytozoaires. According 

 to Mirbel, the action of light and moisture upon the sporules of 

 the M. polymorph, was so remarkable as to determine the devel- 

 opment of mouths (stomata) on the one surface, and of roots and 

 nerves on the other, and vice versa. More than this, the two 

 faces of the lozenge-like body being alike, the prolonged action of 

 light upon one side, and of shade and humidity upon the other, 

 sufficed to dispel the resemblance, and to induce unequivocally 

 the approaching difference in the two surfaces, so that one could 

 very easily distinguish them into superior and inferior, without 

 changing their position. 



Okder III. CIIAEACE^ {The Cham Trile). 



Aquatic plants, always submerged, composed of simple or com- 

 pound membranaceous brittle tubes, often invested with a calca- 

 reous covering. Dr. Brewster denies that the calcareous matter 

 with which several Charse are invested, arises from that sub- 

 stance being held in solution by the water in which they grow ; 

 for he discovered that the plants w^ere phosphorescent when laid 

 upon heated iron, so as to display their entire outlines in the dark ; 

 also, that each group or mass of the calcareous matter (which is 

 held to the stem of the plant by a very fine transparent mem- 

 brane) consisted of minute aggregated particles which possessed 

 double refraction, and had regular depolarizing axes.-' Tlie 

 movement jof sap in the Chara has been distinctly observed by 

 Prof. Amici, of Modena. M. Blainville witnessed the phenomena 

 also ; and he observed that the microscope brought to view a 

 inovement of two liquid currents, the one ascending and the other 

 descending, circulating in the same tube, without l)eing separated 

 by any partition which could insulate them. The nucules are 

 found in a fossil state in marlc. The Charai are fVnmd caq^eting 

 the bottom of ditches and stagnant waters, and frequently yield- 

 ing a very disagreeable odor. Trout and carp arc said to arrive 

 at a great size where these plants abound, feeding, perhaj)s, on 



* Ed. riiil. Journ. Vol. ix. 194. 



