218 THE MICROSCOPE. 



in an early stage of development." This can scarcely be 

 so, for we find that the reproductive apparatus of Chara 

 consists of two sets of bodies, 

 both of which grow at the bases 

 of the branches, fig. 126, E. D ; 

 one set is known as the "globules," 

 the other as the " nucules ;" the 

 globules are the antheridia, whilst 

 the nucules contain the germ- 

 Fig. 127. spiral vessels from cells ; being the representatives of 



the Spermatozoa in the animal. 



Mr. H. J. Carter, in a paper of great interest, published 

 January, 1857, on the "Development of the Root-cell and 

 its Nucleus, in Chara Verticillata" describes a structureless 

 cell-wall, and a protoplasm composed of many organs. 

 " This," he says, " is surrounded by a cell, the ' proto- 

 plasmic sac,' which is divided into a fixed and rotatory 

 portion ; these again respectively enclose the nucleus 

 * granules,' and axial fluid ; while small portions of irre- 

 gular shaped granular bodies are common to both. If 

 we take the simple root-cell about the eighteenth hour 

 after germination, when it will be about half-an-inch long, 

 and 1 -600th of an inch broad, and place it in water between 

 two slips of glass for microscopic observation, under a 

 magnifying power of about four hundred diameters, we 

 shall find, if the circulation be active and the cell -wall 

 strong and healthy, that the nucleus, which is globular, 

 gradually becomes somewhat flattened, having several 

 hyaline vacuoles of different sizes ; the change goes on 

 gradually until it appears of more elongated form, growing 

 fainter on its outline, and then entirely disappears, leaving 

 a white space corresponding to its capsule or cell -wall, 

 with a faint remnant of some structure on the centre. 

 Subsequently, this space becomes filled up with the fixed 

 protoplasm, and after an hour or two the nucleus re- 

 appears a little behind its former situation, but now 

 reduced in size, and with its nucleolus double, instead of 

 single as before ; each nucleolus being about. one-;burth 

 part as large as the old nucleolus, and hardly perceptible. 

 Meanwhile a faint septum is seen obliquely extending 

 across the fixed protoplasm, a little beyond the nucleus ; 



