73 



very minute dark bodies. This arrangement of the coloured 

 and uncoloured part of the triangular anther- cells explains the 

 occurrence of the Arillus diaphanus with which the anthers of 

 the Chares are surrounded. The septa are noticed, which 

 extend in these triangular cells from the circumference to a 

 third of the diameter. They are placed vertically between the 

 upper and lower surfaces of the triangle, and consist of two 

 cellular walls (because they are mere folds. Rep.}, giving this 

 multifid cell some resemblance to a stellate cell, only that the 

 interstices are wanting in them. In Chara with compound 

 cuticle, as in C. tomentosa, &c., M. Fritzsche has discovered 

 small spiculae, which are situated at regular distances between 

 the two membranes of the septa. He has also found in the 

 interior of each anther a bottle-shaped body, consisting of 

 single cells, which projects into the centre of the anther and 

 there supports all the other parts : this formation has hitherto 

 been overlooked by all observers, but the connexion of the 

 other cells and of the polleh thread with the surrounding in- 

 tegument has been known years ago, and we possess since 

 1832 and 1833 some of /the most beautiful drawings of the 

 confervoid pollen thread of the anthers of the Chara, although 

 M. Fritzsche thinks that they have hitherto never been 

 figured correctly. There is in fact nothing more easily per- 

 ceptible with our present microscopes than this transparent 

 delicate thread, but all earlier amplifications were insufficient 

 for this purpose, although even with them the remarkable 

 motions of the Spermatozoa of these plants were discovered 

 by Bischoff, as was mentioned in last year's report*. 



M. Fritzsche has observed the formation of the anthers of 

 the Charae from a simple cell which was filled with a transpa- 

 rent colourless mass, which I am able to confirm, but the for- 

 mation of septa which should then follow is limited only to the 

 thickness of the triangular cells, which subsequently form the 

 coat of the entire organ, and this formation I found to resem- 

 ble that of the outer cellular layer on the Chares with com- 

 pound epidermis. 



After these remarks on the structure of the anthers ofChara, 

 M. Fritzsche speaks of the contents of the pollen in general : 

 the same observations and views which have already several 



* Lond. and Edinb. Philosophical Magazine, vol. xi. p. 165. 



