Algals.] CHARACEiE. 27 



teeth ; the inner hard, dry, opaque, formed of five nari'ow valves, twisted spii-ally." 

 Diet. Class. 1. c. He founds his opinion of the nucule containing but one germinating 

 body upon the experiments of Vaucher, of Geneva, who ascertamed that if ripe nucules 

 of Chara, which have fallen naturally in the autumn, are kept through the winter in 

 water, they will gei'minate about the end of April ; at that time a little body protrudes 

 from the upper end between the five valves, and gradually gives birth to one whorl of 

 branches, which produce a second. Below these whorls the stem swells, and little 

 tufts of roots are emitted. The nucule adheres for a long time to the base of the stem, 

 even when the latter has itself begun to finictify. Hence it is reasonable to conclude 

 that the nucule is really one-seeded. Brongniart remarks, that it is true, when a fresh 

 nucule of Chara is cut across, an infinite number of little white gi'ains are squeezed out ; 

 but if these were really all reproductive particles, how would they ever find their way 

 out of the nucule, wliich is indehiscent ? he considers them rather of the nature of 

 albumen. And he is the more confu-med in his opinion, because in Pilularia, the 

 thecse of which also contam many similar grains, but one plant is produced by each 

 theca. These grains have been ascertained by the observations of Kiitzing to be really 

 starch, iodine colouring them violet ; yet Endhcher describes them as sph^ally-striated 

 spores. Finally, Amici has described (Ann. des Sc. 2.) the nucule in another way. He 

 admits it to be one-seeded, but he considers the points of the five valves to be stigmata, 

 and the valves themselves to be at once pericarp and style. These observations seem 

 to show that the five valves of the nucule, as they are called, are a whorl of leaves, 

 straight at fii'st, and twisted afterwards ; and that the nucule itself is analogous to the 

 bud of flowering plants. 



The globule is described by Greville as " a minute round body, of a reddish colour, 

 composed externally of a number of triangular (always ?) scales, which separate and 

 produce its dehiscence. The interior is filled with a mass of elastic transversely 

 undulated filaments The scales are composed of radiating hollow^ tubes, partly filled 

 with minute colom'ed spherical granules, which freely escape from the tubes when 

 injiu'ed." Vaucher describes them as " tubercles formed externally of a reticulated 

 transparent membrane, containing, in the midst of a mucilaginous fluid, certain wliite 

 articulated transparent filaments, and some other cylindi-ical bodies, closed at one end, 

 and appearing to open at the other. These latter are filled with the red matter to 

 which tlae tubercles owe their colour, and wliich disappears readily and long before the 

 maturity of the nucule." The account of the globule by Agardh is at vai'iance with 

 both these. " Their surface," he remarks, " is hyaline, or colom-less ; tmder this mem- 

 brane is observed a red and reticulated or cellular globe, which has not, however, 

 always such an appearance ; often, instead of this reticulated aspect, the globe is 

 colom-less, but marked by rosettes or stars, the rays of which are red or lanceolate. 

 In the figures given by authors, one finds sometimes one of these forms, sometimes the 

 other. I have myself found them both on the same species ; and I am disposed to 

 beUeve that the last state is the true kernel of the globule, concealed mider the reti- 

 culated scale. (When the globule is very ripe, one may often succeed, by means of a 

 slight degree of pressm*e, m separating it into several valves, as is very well shown in 

 Wallroth's figures, tab. 2. f. 3. and tab. 5. These valves are rayed, and no doubt 

 answer to the stars, of which mention has been made.) The kernel contains some very 

 singular filaments ; they are simple (I once thought I saw them forked), curved and 

 interlaced, transparent and colourless, with transverse striae, parallel and closely 

 packed, as in an Oscillatoria or Nostoc ; but what is very remarkable, they are attached, 

 several together, to a particular organ formed hke a bell, which is itself also colourless, 

 but filled with a red pigment. This bell, to the base of which on the outside they are 

 fixed, diff'ers a Httle in fonu in different species. It is slender and long in Chara 

 vulgaris, thicker in C. firma, shorter in C. delicatula, and shorter still in C. coUabens. 

 I have not succeeded m determining the exact position of these bells in the kernel. I 

 have often thought they were the same thing as the rays of the rosettes or stars upon 

 the globule above mentioned ; whence it would follow that they are placed near the 

 surface, while the filaments have a dh'ection towards the centre. The bells are not 

 numerous ; they often separate from the filaments, and readily part with theii* pigment, 

 which renders it difficult to observe them, and has caused them to be overlooked." 

 That these globioles, whatever theu' natiu'e may be, have no resemblance in structure 

 to anthers, is clear from these descriptions, whichever may be eventually admitted. 

 Nevertheless Fritsche, the patient investigator of poUen, regards them as anthers ! 

 Wallroth says he has sown them, and that they have genninated ; but this observation 

 requires to be verified. 



In the annular or chambered threads of Chara are found m abundance httle spiral 

 bodies ha^-ing an active motion when discharged into water, and resembhng entirely the 

 so-called animalcules in mosses, &c. M. Thuret, who finds tentacula m the spores of 

 Confervas, ascribes a similar moving apparatus to these bodies, adding that they arc turned 



