417 
cult to observe them, and has caused them to be overlooked.” That these 
globules, whatever their nature may be, have no sort of analogy in structure 
with anthers, is clear from these descriptions, whichever may be eventually 
admitted. Wallroth, indeed, says he has sown them, and that they have ger- 
minated ; but this observation requires to be verified. 
It does not appear from the preceding descriptions that Chara has a marked 
affinity to any other plants. I incline to the opinion of those who consider it 
near Confervae, chiefly on account of the organisation of the stem ; for it does 
not seem that the reproductive organs of flowerless plants are of the same de- 
gree of importance in deciding affinities as the fructification of flowering plants. 
Its total want of vascular system renders it impossible to adopt the opinion of 
those who would place it near Ferns next to Marsileaceae, and the regularity with 
which all the parts are formed round a common axis renders it equally impos- 
sible to refer it absolutely to the leafless orders. I therefore place it on the 
limits of the latter. 
There are two other points deserving of attention in Characeae : 1 st, the 
calcareous incrustation of some species ; and 2dly, the visible and rapid mo- 
tion of the sap in the articulation of the stem. 
Of the two genera, Nitella is transparent and free from all foreign matter ; 
but Chara contains, on the outside of its central tube, a thick layer of calca- 
reous matter, which renders it opaque. This incrustation appears, from the 
observations of Greville (FI. Edin. 281), not to be a deposit upon the outside, 
and of an adventitious nature, but the result of some peculiar economy in the 
plant itself ; and according to Brewster, it is analogous to the siliceous depo- 
sit in Equisetum, exhibiting similar phenomena. 
Whatever is known of the motions of the fluids of vegetables has been 
necessarily a matter of inference, rather than the result of direct observation ; 
for who could ever actually see the sap of plants move in the vessels destined 
to its conveyance } It is true that it was known to botanists that a certain 
Abbe Corti of Lucca, had, in 1774, published some remarkable observations 
upon the circulation of fluid in some aquatic plants, and that the accuracy of 
this statement had been confirmed by Treviranus so long ago as 1817 ; but 
the fact does not seem to have attracted general attention until the publica- 
tion, by Amici, the celebrated professor at Modena, of a memoir in the 18th 
volume of the Transactions of the Italian Society, which was succeeded by ano- 
ther in the 19th. From all these observers it appears, that if the stems of 
any transparent species of Chara, or of any opaque one, the incrustation of 
which is removed, are examined with a good microscope, a distinct current 
will be seen to take place in every tube of which the plant is composed, setting 
from the base to the apex of the tubes,and returning at the rate, in Chara vulgaris, 
of about two lines per minute (v.Ann. des Sc. 2. 51. line 9) ; and according to 
Treviranus this play is at any time destroyed by the application of a few drops 
of brandy, by pressure, or by any laceration of the tube. This is the nature of the 
singular phenomena that are to be seen in Characese. Those who are anxious 
to become acquainted with the details of Amici’s observations will find his paper 
translated in the Annales de Chimie, 13. 384, and his second in the Ann. des 
Sc. 2. 41.; that of Treviranus is to be found in the latter work, 10. 22. 
According to the last-named author, these facts lead to the conclusion 
that there is a primitive vitality in amorphous organic matter, which is an- 
tecedent to the formation of all organic beings, and is in its turn produced 
by them, to serve, according to circumstances, either for the support or en- 
largement of the individual, or for the production of a new organisation. This 
vitality is manifested in movements which may appear to take place without 
rule or object, but which are differently modified according to the difle fences 
of organic bodies ; all which seems to show that the vital princi})lc is originally 
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