INTEODUCTIOIf TO CRYPTOGAMIO BOTANY. 



427 



These bodies are reproductive, and replace the nucules, which 

 do not appear to be formed when these are produced, for they 

 are not to be found in every specimen. The antheridia are glo- 

 bular bodies of a deep brick red, the walls of which are 

 divided by three great circles, two of which are vertical, and the 

 third equatorial, into eight equilateral spherical triangles. 

 Each of these consists of a circle of radiating cells meeting in 

 the centre, from whence a j)erpendicular column penetrates 

 into the centre of the globule,* where they meet a ninth pro- 

 ceeding from the base. At the point of juncture, numerous 

 confervoid threads are given off, each cell of which produces a 

 spiral spermatozoid, with two flagelliform appendages, resem- 

 bling those of Hepaticce and Musci. I have explained the 

 morphosis many years since, in English Botany, under G. 

 Hedwigii, as a fascicle of branchlets given off from the tip of 



Fig. 88. 



a. Chara Hedwigii, nat. size. From specimen gathered at Sandwich. 

 h. Nucule of ditto, magnified. 



c. Bulbs of Chara stdligera, after Montague. 



d. One of the eight divisions of the antheridia of C.fragilis, with its 

 column, and the thi-eads which produce the spermatozoids. 



e. Spermatozoid, after Thuret. 



* Thuret, in Ann. d. Sc. Nat., ser. 3, vol. xvi., tab. 9. 



