342 GENERATION OF CHARACEjE. 



from each other, leaving a canal that leads down to the central 

 cell ; and it is probable that through this canal the Antherozoids 

 make their way down, to perform the act of fertilization. Ulti- 

 mately the nucule falls off like a seed, and gives origin to a single 

 new plant by a kind of germination .—The complete specialization 

 of the Generative apparatus which we here observe (the organs of 

 which it is composed being distinctly separated from the ordinary 

 Vegetative portion of the fabric), as well as the complex structure 

 of the organs themselves, mark out this group, in spite of the 

 simplicity of the rest of its structure, as belonging to a grade very 

 much above that of the other Families that have been treated of in 

 this chapter ; but as scarcely any two Botanists agree upon the 

 exact place which ought to be assigned to it, the convenience of 

 associating it with other forms of vegetation of which the Micro- 

 scopist especially takes cognizance, is a sufficient reason for so 

 arranging it in a work like the present. * 



* It was affirmed by Dr. Hartig (see "Quart. Journ. of Microsc. 

 Science," Vol. iv., 1856, p. 51) that the Antherozoids of Chara and Nitella, 

 as of Marchantia and Mosses, may undergo a kind of metamorphosis into 

 Spirilla, Vibriones, and Monads ; and that, by the coalescence of these 

 last, Amoeba are produced. And further, it was asserted by Mr. H. 

 Carter, of Bombay, that the protoplasm of the ordinary cells of the 

 Characece and other aquatic plants might become transformed into an 

 Actinophrys (see "Ann. of Nat. Hist.," 2nd Ser., Vol. xix., p. 287). 

 More recently, however, this doctrine has been retracted by Mr. Carter 

 (" A.N.H.," 3rd Ser., Vol. viii., p. 289), who accounts for the phenomena 

 which he observed on the hypothesis of parasitism. Yet the original 

 statements of Dr. Hartig and Mr. Carter have received independent 

 support from the observations of Dr. Hicks on Volvox (§ 198) and on 

 the root-fibres of Mosses (§ 275), and from those of De Bary on the 

 so-called Mycetozoa (§ 269). 



