AQUATIC PLANTS OF FRESHWATER 



3 feet and bears yellow flowers ^ to ^ inch across, and alternate lance- 

 olate entire or finely toothed leaves. Native to bogs in the Eastern and 

 Middle States. 



Ludwigia grows luxuriantly in ponds and basins and survives in the 

 aquarium. It should be planted in shallow pots with sod soil or pond 

 mud covered with pebbles. Its fine foliage and handsome colors make it 

 a most desirable aquarium plant. 



NITELLA AND CHARA 



These dainty aquatics, belong to the order of the Characeae and are 

 popularly known as Stoneworts. They are good oxygenators and beautiful 

 aquarium plants but the more delicate of them should not be grown in the 

 rearing tanks, as the young fishes may become 

 entangled in their dense growth of hairhke stems 

 and leaves. The generally distributed species 

 are: — Nitella flexilis, N. gracilis, N. tenuissima, 

 Chara coronata, C. gymnofus and C. crinita. 

 Fig. 121. 



Nitella flexilis (Ag.) or Flexible Nitella grows 

 to a length of 20 to 30 inches in deep water and 

 has a very slender erect and flexible stem with 

 heavy and long threadlike node-bearing leaflets 

 either single or divided into two abruptly pointed 

 segments. The spores or fruitlets are formed in 

 the middle of the branching leaves. Common in 

 streams and still water. 



Nitella gracilis (Sm.) or Slender Nitella, 

 Fig. 122, is more hairlike than the above with the 

 nodes more widely separated and the leaflets some- 

 what shorter. ' The spores are formed in the axils 

 of the branching leaves. Usually to be found in 

 ponds and streams. Morris Pond and Schuylkill 

 River. A desirable aquarium plant. 



Nitella tenuissima (Desv.) or Clustered 

 Nitella has very slender 2 to 6 inch long spar- 

 ingly branched stems and leaves in close verticils, 

 three or four times divided, with the first segment ^^lllZi o^^^l"' 



the longer. Native in New York, New Jersey, ^; ""^tuaafiZlu. 



Rhode Island and Michigan. 3- chara gymnopui. 



/->! fry- \ /-• 4" ('^'"''' criniia. 



Lhara coronata (Ziz.) or Crowned Chara, is a 5- NUdia tenuimma. 



large Ceratophyllum-like aquatic, growing to 18 L^'Z-S 



■94 



