ACOTYLEDONES— ALGiE. 429 



or scattered upon its surface, or included in peculiar organs 

 which are considered the fruit or apothecia. The Lichens have 

 an affinity on the one hand with the Algce, and on the other 

 with the Fimgi. Sometimes they are formed of a simple pul- 

 verulent crust or frond ; sometimes they are membranous, cori- 

 aceous, gelatinous, lobed and variously branched, at all times 

 destitute of leaves. They present various colours, not unfre- 

 quently tending to green. In this extensive Order there are 

 many useful and curious plants. The species of the Genus 

 Gyrophora constitute the Tripe de Roche of the Canadian 

 Hunters. The Genus Opegrapha not inaptly lesembles 

 written characters in its fructification. Lecanora yields the 

 Perelle (L. Peidlus) of the French, and the Cudbear (//. Tar- 

 tarea) ; Roccella, the Archil (/?. tinctoria^, so important to 

 the Dyer. Parmelia oniphalodes and P. saxatilis are used 

 for the same purpose by the peasantry of Scotland. In Clado- 

 NFA we have the Rein-deer moss, as it is erroneously called (C 

 rangferinci), and in Cetraria, the Iceland moss (C. Islandica). 

 — For the divisional characters of this extensive family, seet'o/. 

 W.p. 131. 



Ord. civ. CHARACE.E. Fructification of 2 kinds.— 1. 

 Capsules (?) axillary, solitary, sessile, oval, spirally twisted, 

 invested with a pellucid membrane and crowned with 5 lobes, 

 containing very minute seeds. 2. Globules of a reddish or orange 

 colour, surrounded by a pellucid covering, at length opening 

 into 3 or 4 valves (8, Wilson) and containing a mass of very 

 minute filaments. — Aquatic Plants, with pellucid filiform stems, 

 which are sometimes coated with a calcareous crust, and whorled 

 branches. When destitute of this crust and examined with a good 

 power of the microscope, a movement of 2 spiral liquid currents 

 is distinctly observable, the one ascending, the other descend- 

 ing, yet circulating in the same tube without any partition which 

 can separate them. The fruit of this genus is often fossilized in 

 chalk, and known under the name of Gyrogonites. This Order 

 contains the Genus Chara, which Sir J. E. Smith places in the 

 Class IMoNANDRiA of the artificial arrangement. See vol. ii. 

 p. 242. 



Ord. CV. ALG^. Vegetables, for the most part aquatic, 

 destitute of roots, or furnished only with a fibrous or scutate 

 base for the purpose of attachment, not of nourishment, whose 

 fronds are either gelatinous, filamentose or coriaceous, having, 

 for fructification, seeds or sporules, either imbedded in tubercles 

 or processes arising from the frond, or immersed or more or less 

 scattered on the surface. — Many of them float in the water. 

 They are subpellucid, often beautifully cellular, their colour 

 frequently green, brownish, bright-red or pink. After having 

 been kept dry for a considerable length of time, they will revive 



