CHARACE^E. 91 



posed, but who shall answer them ? Is the globule really the 

 male apparatus? and are the spiral coils which may be 

 denominated animalcula the agents whereby the seeds are 

 fertilized? and if so, in what way do they effect this grand 

 and prime object ? what also is the nature of those numerous 

 particles contained in the peculiar cells whose motion seems 

 only to be regulated by individual will, and what is the office 

 over which the vesicles in the cells of the footstalks preside ? 



M. Bischoff (Die Cryptogamischen Gewachse, Ire livr., 

 1828) was the first to observe the animalcula of Chara. 

 Using a microscope of but feeble power, however, he did 

 not make out their origin. Afterwards Meyen gave very 

 imperfect figures of them in the " Annales des Sciences Na- 

 turelles," t. x. p. 319. pi: 10. 1838. Mr. Varley, however, 

 from whose excellent papers I have had occasion to draw so 

 largely, appears to be the first observer, who gave an ac- 

 curate, minute, and complete description of them in his paper 

 in the " Trans, of Society of Arts," published in 1834 ; a 

 paper, with the existence of which M. Gustave Thuret did 

 not seem acquainted when he published his excellent memoir 

 " Sur 1'Anthere du Chara" in the 14th volume, second series, 

 of the "Annales des Sciences Naturelles," 1840, as no allusion 

 is made to it therein, and the facts detailed do not differ in 

 any essential particular from those previously made known 

 by Mr. C. Varley. 



M. Peyen has examined the Characea chemically. The 

 following are the more important of his remarks : 



" The orange-coloured vesicles (globules) which are seen on 

 the branches of Chara contain, as is known, cellules very 

 long and flexible. I have ascertained that their fine mem- 

 branes have the chemical composition of vegetable tissue, 

 while the substances enclosed by them present the azotized 

 composition proper to bodies enveloped in the young organs 

 of plants." 



" These analytical results appear to me to be natural con- 

 sequences of the constitution of the reproductive organs of 

 Chara, such as M. Brongniart has indicated not only as to 

 the monospermic grain, but also relatively to the azotized 



