108 ACOTYLEDONS. CHARACE.5:. 



with numerous short subsetaieous teeth. Turn. ylg. p. 36. 



Fncus sobolij'erus, Turn. Hist. Fiic. t. 45. 

 Hab. Orkney islands, Mr. Charles Foiher gill, Mr. Borrer and Hook. 

 Three to four inches long, of a transparent pinky colour. 



** Frond cylindrical. 

 4. H.? siil tills, fronds subgelatinous capillary branched, branches 



growing irregularly in parcels on different sides of the frond 



rather remote acuminated. Tuim. H. foeniadacea, yfg.p.SS. 



Fucus siibiilis, Ttirn. Hist. File. t. 234. Conferva J'cenicu- 



lacen, Light/, p. 981. 

 Hab. In basins of water left by the recess of the tides, among tlie 



rocks on the western coast. Light/. Abundant on the shores of 



lona, and at Oban, Mr. Turner and Hook. 

 One to two feet long; branches very fine and conferva-like, but quite 



destitute of joints. CoZowr olive brown. No fructification has been 



discovered. 



Order IV. CHARACE^. 



Fructification oi two kinds. Nucules 4, bracteated, standing 

 solitary, sessile, oval, spirally striated, surrounded by a dia- 

 phanous covering or involucre, which is obscurely quinquefid 

 at the extremity, one-celled, many-seeded, indehiscent: seeds 

 or sporules very miimte, whitish, sphaerical; and globules of a 

 reddish or orange colour, accompanying the Nucules, surround- 

 ed by a pellucid coat or covering, at length opening into 3 — 4 

 valves, and containing a mass of very minute spiral filaments. 



Vegetation. Aquatic plants never rising above the surface of the 

 water, fixed into the mud by slender fibrous radicals issuing 

 fronj a swollen portion of the base of the stem. Stems slender, 

 confervoid, (always ?) tubular throughout, pellucid or covered 

 with a calcareous crust, very brittle when dry and generally 

 foetid, branched ; branchlets whoried, often aculeated, Wall- 

 roth, Annus Butanicus. — Wallroth, in his little work here re- 

 ferred to, has given a most admirable account of the fructifi- 

 cation of this curious tribe of plants; from which it appears 

 evident, that it has no claims to be ranked among the perfect 

 plants, and that its nearest affniity is with the ConJ'ervce and 

 Ulvce among the Algce. 



A minute fossil body freciuently found in chalk, which is spirally 

 twisted, and which was formerly considered to belong to the 

 animal kingdom, is, I believe, now generally allowed to be 

 the Nucule of Chara. Various species have been discovered, 

 and they are called by the French, Gyrngonites. M. Leman, 

 however, (who speaks of them in the Nouvcan Diet, des Sci' 

 ences Nulurcllcs, under the article Charagnc,) IVouj an inves- 



