THE TIIALLOPHYTA 



277 



5. Chorales or Stoneworts (Fig. 156). — This remarkable group 

 of plants stands apart from all others and we have no certain 

 knowledge as to its relationships. The vegetative body consists 

 of long, jointed stems, and at the joints, or nodes, arise whorls of 



Fig. 156. — Chara. A, a main branch, showing the circles of small, lateral 

 branches, bearing the sexual organs, arising at the joints of the main branch. 

 B, part of a lateral branch showing the sexual organs; the oogonium above and 

 the antheridium below. C, the sexual organs and branch in section, oogonium 

 (with one large egg) at right and antheridium at left. 



short branches. No asexual spores are produced, but along the 

 branches are borne antheridia and oogonia, far more compli- 

 cated than among any other thallophj^tcs. The antheridium is 

 spherical and its wall is composed of eight somewhat triangular 

 cells from the inner surface of which arise a large number of many- 



