
AQUATIC PLANTS OF FRESHWATER 

3 feet and bears yellow flowers '% to 34 inch across, and alternate lance- 
olate entire or finely toothed leaves. Native to bogs in the Eastern and 
Middle States. 
Ludwigia grows luxuriantly in ponds and basins and survives in the 
aquarium. It should be planted in shallow pots with sod soil or pond 
mud covered with pebbles. Its fine foliage and handsome colors make it 
a most desirable aquarium plant. 
NITELLA AND CHARA 
These dainty aquatics, belong to the order of the Characez and are 
popularly known as Stoneworts. They are good oxygenators and beautiful 
aquarium plants but the more delicate of them should not be grown in the 
rearing tanks, as the young fishes may become Mh 
entangled in their dense growth of hairlike stems uy) : {| 
and leaves. The generally distributed species Mit VE 14 
are:—Nitella flexilis, N. gracilis, N. tenutssima, ie i a 
enn 58 ApS y at 
Chara coronata, C. gymnopus and C. crinita. a | a, uh 
i i He We Ey + 
Fig. LOT: UA j | ny ity Ws. 
Nitella flexilis (Ag.) or Flexible-Nitella grows \ Wl 4 


Es 
to a length of 20 to 30 inches in deep water and ‘\ } W 
has a very slender erect and flexible stem with Y 
heavy and long threadlike node-bearing leaflets 
either single or divided into two abruptly pointed 
segments. The spores or fruitlets are formed in 
the middle of the branching leaves. Common in 
streams and still water. 
Nitella gracilis (Sm.) or Slender Nitella, 
Fig. 122, 1s more hairlike than the above with the 
nodes more widely separated and the leaflets some- 
what shorter. The spores are formed in the axils 
of the branching leaves. Usually to be found in 
ponds and streams. Morris Pond and Schuylkill 
River. A desirable aquarium plant. 
Nitella tenuissima (Desv.) or Clustered 
Nitella has very slender 2 to 6 inch long spar- 
ingly branched stems and leaves in close verticils, 
- shone A FIG, 121. Characee. 
three or four times divided, with the first segment Reduced one-third, 
. Chara coronata. 
the longer. Native in New York, New Jersey, | Nitella lewis 
. Chara gymnopus. 
Rhode Island and Michigan. Lee 
I 
2 
3 
: ~ e zs 
Chara coronata (Ziz.) or Crowned Chara, is a 5. Nitella tenuissima. 
6. Nitella gracilis. 
R 
large Ceratophyllum-like aquatic, growing to 18 
educed one-third. 
194 
