Notice of rare Plants, 8$c. 97 



vessels of the plant, sometimes in direct, but mostly in spiral 

 channels, now flowing with accelerated motion, and now in a 

 slower degree. Whenever internodes, or even the apparent 

 rudimentary gems of a new branch occurred, these globules 

 would contract so as to allow their passing round the knot, and 

 on being relieved from such constraint, would instantly recover 

 their former size and shape. 



I would here observe, that to appreciate fully the beauty of 

 this phenomenon, the microscope must be of a deep penetrating 

 power, and if convenient, an achromatic lens should be em- 

 ployed. For further particulars of this curious subject of 

 Cyclosis, the reader may consult with advantage the ingenious 

 papers of Messrs. Varley and Slack, in vol. xlix., of London 

 Transactions of Arts and Sciences, p. 179 and seq., plates. 



Different opinions seem to have been entertained respecting 

 the position, which this plant should hold among the classes and 

 orders of the vegetable system. Vaillant, first established the 

 Family of Characeae in 1719, when it contained the single genus 

 Chara. Linnaeus, at one time placed the plant in his Crypto- 

 gamia, but afterward removed it to his class and order Monoecia, 

 Monandria : while Richard grouped the Characeoe among 

 Acotyledonea3, to which they seem allied and approximate to 

 Marsilea, in the common structure of their seed-vessels. 



The original specimens collected as mentioned above, have 

 been growing during a space of eighteen months, in a vial 

 closely sealed, making a profusion of new branches and seeds. 



ZOSTERA MARINA. Linnwi species Plantarwn, 1374. 



Eel grass. Sea-wrack. 

 Natural order. Fluviales. Lindley. 



In a search for shells on Plymouth Beach, last summer, I had 

 the good fortune to find several specimens of this plant in full 

 fructification. Dr. Bigelow, in his Florula Bostoniensis, men- 

 tions that he had never been able to discover it in this condition. 

 The fact is worthy of notice. 



The fruit of the Zostera is disposed in two rows, in sheaths 

 formed from the dilation of the leaves, infolding, like the spathe 

 of an Arum, but confined to the middle ; the leaf assuming its 

 usual ribbon-shape immediately above the seeds. Each of these 



