IN THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 30 



to the antherozoicls of the higher Ciyptogamia, for impreg- 

 nation has never been actually observed. The globules of 

 Chara are round red bodies, whose outer Avail consists of 

 eight pieces, each having the form of an equilateral right 

 angled spherical triangle, and consisting of a whorl of cells, 

 radiating from the outer extremity of a perpendicular 

 column. The supporting columns of all these parietal 

 segments arise in the centre of the globule, from an inward 

 prolongation of the footstalk of the organ, and at the same 

 point there are also attached numerous jointed threads, 

 each of the articulations of which produces a spiral anthe- 

 rozoid, with two cilia at its dilated extremity. Mr. Berkeley 

 ingeniously explains the morphosis of the globule as a 

 fascicle of branchlets given oif from the tip of the axis, 

 radiating in eight different directions, and each producing 

 in turn another whorl of branchlets, which, by the co- 

 aptation of their extremities, form the wall of the globule.* 



In connection with this the antheridial threads may be 

 considered as a secondary order of filaments, arising in the 

 axils of the first, and bearing, in their individual cells, the 

 spermatic particles — a view which helps to approximate the 

 fructification to the type of antheridial development among 

 the Algae. 



The co-related organ — the nucide — consists of a central 

 sac filled with starch, and coated by a layer of five elongated 

 cells, wound spirally round it, attached at their bases to the 

 insertion of the footstalk, and free at their tips, where there 

 is an aperture leading into the interior. Morphologically, 

 therefore, the nucule may be looked upon as a whorl of 

 unicellular branchlets, cohering by their edges, but Anthout 

 the secondary fascicles, and the axillary antheridial fila- 

 ments, which give such a complex character to the globule. 



The nucules germinate by the formation of a cell at the 



* Cryptogamic Botany, 127. 



