SECT. V. 



CHARACE&. 



3'5 



cious, more or less opaque and brittle, their many-jointed 

 tubular stems bearing whorls of long slender awl-shaped 

 branchlets. The fruit, accompanied by a cluster of short 

 bracts or ramuli, is placed at intervals in the hollow side 

 of the branchlets, one at each joint. In the bristly Chara 

 the awl-shaped branchlets are simple, pointed at the 



Fig. 42. Antheridia of Chara fragilis : D, E, F, successive stages of formation of spenna- 

 tozoids in the linear cells of the antheridial filaments ; G, escape of mature spermato- 

 zoids, which are shown detached at H. 



extremity, and composed of about seven joints, with a 

 whorl of from four to seven short bracts, and having fruit 

 at each articulation. Many of the species of Characese 

 are thickly incrusted with lime, and the whole order is 

 exceedingly fetid. 



