CHARACE^E. 



Ord. V. CHARACEvE. Rich. 



Aquatic Plants, always submerged, composed of simple or 

 compound, membranaceous, sometimes brittle tubes, smooth 

 or spirally striated, often invested with a calcareous covering, 

 jointed at the insertion of the branches, which are dichoto- 

 mous and whorled. Organs of fructification of two kinds, on the 

 same or on different plants ; in the latter case approximate or 

 remote from each other, always produced on, or at the base of, 

 the lesser ramuli or bracteee : — 1. Globules o{ a reddish or orange 

 colour [stamens of many authors), in maturity formed of triangular 

 scales, each of which, in Chara vulgaris, " has a vacant portion in 

 its centre, but the margin (which has a fluted appearance under a 

 small magnifier) consists of a number of parallel, linear-oblong, 

 hyaline, hollow tubes, placed at small intervals from each other, 

 those forming the angles of the scale being branched. Within 

 these tubes are a profusion of globular, minute, orange bodies, 

 (exactly similar to the sporules of many cryptogamic plants,) 

 arranged in no order, and escaping on the least injury of the 

 tubes. It is these little bodies which give the orange colour 

 to the globule." (Grev.) The globule is filled with a muci- 

 lage and extremely delicate convoluted filaments, arising from 

 minute campanulate bodies, often articulated: — 2. Nucules, which 

 are ovate, consisting of a hard, spirally twisted, crustaceous 

 integument, often crowned with 5 projecting points, filled with 

 minute granules ; which, however, perhaps, in maturity constitute 

 but one body, for M. Vaucher 1 has clearly ascertained (and in- 



1 "If," says this acute naturalist, « we place the ripe capsules (nucuhs)of Chara 

 in water in the autumn, they will survive the winter without undergoing any 

 perceptible alteration ; but on the approach of warm weather, towards the end 

 of April, from the upper extremity, between the five valves or points, will be 

 seen a little prolongation, which, as it becomes more and more developed, soon 

 gives origin to the first whorl of branches, these to a second ; below these 

 branches, the stem swells, and there appear some tufts of small roots ; the 

 capsule rests for a long time adherent to the base of the stem, even till the lat- 

 ter begins to bear fructification. During this development no trace of coty- 

 ledons is seen." Thus, if looked upon in the light of acapsule, this body, though 

 in an early stage containing many minute granules, can only be considered as 

 monospermoiis. 



