BULLETIN 205, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
DESCRIPTION OF PLANTS. 
Musk grasses belong to the great group of plants known as 
alga?, which include forms commonly known as frog spit, green 
slime, and seaweeds. Most of the musk grasses (Characea?) live 
in fresh water and are among the most highly organized alga? that 
do so. They are attached to the bottom, and over it often form a 
fluffy blanket a foot or more in thickness. Small round white tubers 
occur in numbers on the rhizoids (root-like organs) of some species. 
The slender stems are jointed and bear at the joints whorls of fine 
tubular leaves, which usually 
have a beaded appearance (fig. 
1), due to the reproductive 
organs growing there. These 
are of two sorts: the anther- 
idia, which are spherical and 
red when mature, and the 
oogonia, which are ovoid and 
black, more or less overlaid 
with white. The oogonia cor- 
respond to the seeds of higher 
plants, and are about half a 
millimeter in length. 
These plants are translucent 
and fragile, dull green in color, 
and often {Chara) incrusted 
with lime. This has given 
them one of their common 
names, limeweed. Other 
names are stonewort, fine moss 
(Michigan), oyster grass and 
nigger wool (North Carolina) , 
and skunk grass (Massachu- 
setts). The latter name and 
that here adopted for these 
plants, namely, musk grass, refer to a strong odor given off by a mass 
of the plants when freshly taken from the water. 
DISTRIBUTION. 
Probably- no part of the United States entirely lacks representa- 
tives of Chara or Nitella, our two genera of Characea?. They require 
lime, however, and hence reach their best development in regions 
where that mineral is plentiful. 
PROPAGATION. 
For transplanting, musk grasses should be gathered in quantity in 
late summer or fall, when some or all of the oogonia are mature. For 
Fig. 1. — A musk grass ( Chara). 
