CHANTRANSIA. 



CHARACEJE. 



violet, parasitic, sheathed, articulate ; ter- 

 minal joints forming 1 rounded gonidia. Four 

 species. 



C. confer vicola (PL 3. fig. 6). On Calo- 

 thrix, Vaucheria, &c, 



BIBL. Rabenhorst, Fl. Alg. ii. 148 (figs.). 



CHANTRAN'SIA, Fries. A genus 

 of Cerarniaceae (Florideous Algae). 



Species numerous, purple, violet, or ferru- 

 ginous. Found on stones, submerged mosses, 

 and wood. Antheridia subglobose, terminal, 

 tetraspores rare. 



BIBL. Rabenhorst, Fl. Alg. iii. 401; 

 Pringsheim, Beit. z. Morph. d. Meeres- 

 Algen ; Hassall, Alg. 75. 



OHA'RA, L. See CHAHACEJE. 



CHARA'CE^E. A family of plants ge- 

 nerally classed among the Algae, but which, 

 from the character of their reproductive 

 organs, perhaps demand a more elevated 

 position. They may be placed on the boun- 

 dary between the Algae and the Hepaticae. 

 They are remarkable for their well-known 

 ' circulation/ first discovered by Corti. The 

 Characese are aquatic plants, of filamentous 

 structure, exhibiting elongated axes fur- 

 nished at intervals with whorls of branches 

 (fig. 117) ; these are sometimes regarded as 

 leaves. In some species this axis is a 

 simple tube (fig. 124), sometimes a tube 

 with a cortical layer of smaller tubes sur- 

 rounding it (figs. 118, 119). Some authors 

 have divided the species, on this and some 

 other grounds, into two genera, Nitella 

 (simple tubes) andC%anz (corticated tubes) ; 

 but according to Al. Braun, who has de- 

 voted great attention to this family, the 

 characters will not hold. The mode of 

 ramification of the simple tubes is seen in 

 figs. 124 & 125 ; that of the compound axes 

 is fundamentally the same, but other cells 

 arise from the branch cells at the articula- 

 tions, one above and one below each branch 

 (C. crinita). Those on the upper side of 

 the branches grow up over the central axis 

 to meet those descending from the under 

 side of the branches of the whorl next 

 above, the ends becoming intercalated about 

 the middle of the internode : in this course 

 of growth, cell-division takes place, and the 

 primary corticaftubes are not only made up 

 of many lengths in each internode, but each 

 is perpendicularly divided into two, one 

 large and one smaller tube (C. vulgaris), or 

 produces a secondary tube on each side (C. 

 aspera) ; the primary tubes stand out as ribs 

 from the surface. These cortical tubes de- 

 scribe a spiral course around the internode. 



Fig. 117. 



Fig. 118. 



Fig. 120. 



Fig. 119. 



Fig. 117. Chara -vnlgaris. Natural size. 

 Fig. 118. Fragment of stem, magnified 15 diam., show- 

 ing the cortical tubes. 



Fig. 119. A section of ditto, magnified 30 diam. 

 Fig. 120. Branch with nucule and globule, 10 d'nm. 



Filamentous radical cells are also produced 

 from the whorls. The cells of the main 

 axis and its branches, and the primary cor- 

 tical cells, are those in which the circula- 

 tion of the contents may be seen best. The 

 cell- wall is lined by a close layer, like a 



