202 ON THE STKUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF CHARACE.E. 



ON THE STRUCTUEE AND AFFINITIES OF CHAR ACE. E. 

 By Alfred W. Bennett, M.A., B.Sc, F.L.S. 



The position of the order Characece in the natural system has 

 been one of the most fruitful subjects of discussion among crypto- 

 gamic botanists. Forming by themselves a small and perfectly 

 natural group, their affinity is obviously not close with any other 

 family of Cryptogams. Placed by Linnaeus first of all among 

 AlfjiB, and afterwards transferred to a position among flowering 

 plants, they were treated by most of the botanists who succeeded 

 him as Phanerogams. A. L. de Jussieu considered them as mono- 

 cotyledonous Phanerogams, referring them to Naiades, as Robert 

 Brown did to Hijdrocharidecc ; while others have traced a fancied 

 affinity, among dicotyledonous Phanerogams, to Haloragea {Mijrio- 

 phyllum), or CeratopJnjUaceiB ; and Richard erected them into a 

 separate order of flowering plants. Even to the present day the 

 CharacecE find a place in some phanerogamic floras, enjoying that 

 distinction along with Vascular Cryi)togams alone among flowerless 

 plants ; but this is probably due rather to the small number of 

 species than to any supposed genetic affinity. Agardli placed them 

 among Confer vacece ; Brongniart among the highest Cryptogams, 

 near to Filices and Marsileace(r, ;' Le Maout and Decaisne located 

 them between Vascular Cryptogams and Muscinea ; Lindley regarded 

 them as an order of the alliance Algals ; while Berkeley and the 

 greater number of recent botanists treat them, under the name 

 Charales, as forming a class by themselves intermediate between 

 MuscincfE and Thallophytes. Caruel places them by themselves 

 in the group Schistoganue, between Phanerogams and Vascular 

 Cryptogams. Finally, in the 4th edition of his 'Lehrbuch,' 

 Sachs again degrades them into a family of Carposporea, the 

 highest class of Thallophytes. From a conviction that this location 

 arises from a mistaken view of certain points of structure, I am 

 desirous of laying the following considerations before the readers 

 of the * Journal of Botany.' 



The most complete records of original observations on the 

 structure of the OharacecR are the following: — Thuret, '* Sur les 

 Antheridies des Cryptogames," in ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles,' 

 vol. xvi., 1851, p.'lB ; Montague, "Multiplication des charagnes 

 par division," 'Ann. des Sci. Nat.,' vol. xviii., 1852, p. 65; 

 Nordstedt, "Nagra iakttagelser ofver Characeernas groning," in 

 ' Lunds Univ. Arsskrift,' vol. ii. ; Priugsheim, " Ueber die Vor- 

 keime und die nacktfilssigen Zweige der Charen," in ' Jahrbuch 

 fiir wissenschaftlichen Botanik, vol. iii., 1863, p. 294; Wahlstedt, 

 '*0n Characeernas Knoppar och ofvervintring," Lund, 1864; 

 A. Braun, "Conspectus Systematicus Characearum Euroiiearum,' 

 1867 ; and De Bary, " Zur Keimungsgeschichte der Charen," in 

 ' Botanische Zeitung,' 1875, p. 377 et set], (translated with illustra- 

 tions in ' Journal of Botany,' 1875, p. 298.) I am, however, 

 acquainted with the two Swedish memoirs only through De Bary's 

 paper. 



