The English flora - SeaweedAfrica

CHARACE^E.
Ord. V. CHARACEvE. Rich.
Aquatic Plants, always submerged, composed of simple or
compound, membranaceous, sometimes brittle tubes, smooth
or spirally striated, often invested with a calcareous covering,
jointed at the insertion of the branches, which are dichotomous
and whorled. Organs offructification of two kinds, on the
same or on different plants ; in the latter case approximate or
remote from each other, always produced on, or at the base of,
the lesser ramuli or bracteee :— 1. Globules o{ a reddish or orange
colour [stamens of many authors), in maturity formed of triangular
scales, each of which, in Chara vulgaris, " has a vacant portion in
its centre, but the margin (which has a fluted appearance under a
small magnifier) consists of a number of parallel, linear-oblong,
hyaline, hollow tubes, placed at small intervals from each other,
those forming the angles of the scale being branched. Within
these tubes are a profusion of globular, minute, orange bodies,
(exactly similar to the sporules of many cryptogamic plants,)
arranged in no order, and escaping on the least injury of the
tubes. It is these little bodies which give the orange colour
to the globule." (Grev.) The globule is filled with a mucilage
and extremely delicate convoluted filaments, arising from
minute campanulate bodies, often articulated:—2. Nucules, which
are ovate, consisting of a hard, spirally twisted, crustaceous
integument, often crowned with 5 projecting points, filled with
minute granules ; which, however, perhaps, in maturity constitute
but one body, for M. Vaucher 1 has clearly ascertained (and in-
1 "If," says this acute naturalist, « we place the ripe capsules (nucuhs)of Chara
in water in the autumn, they will survive the winter without undergoing any
but on the approach of warm weather, towards the end
perceptible alteration ;
of April, from the upper extremity, between the five valves or points, will be
seen a little prolongation, which, as it becomes more and more developed, soon
gives origin to the first whorl of branches, these to a second below these
;
branches, the stem swells, and there appear some tufts of small roots the
;
capsule rests for a long time adherent to the base of the stem, even till the latter
begins to bear fructification. During this development no trace of cotyledons
is seen." Thus, if looked upon in the light of acapsule, this body, though
in an early stage containing many minute granules, can only be considered as
monospermoiis.