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substances contained in the vegetable membranes which are
related to the pollen of the male organ.”
“ These chemical facts should be in harmony with the observations
of M. Meyen and those of M. Brongniart upon the
spontaneous movements of little bodies enclosed in the pollen.
(Ann. des Sc. Nat., Nov. et Dec. 1838.) The particles of
BroAvn are found in my experiments to have an azotized
quaternary composition.”
The monospermic grain is composed chiefly, as was first
indicated by Baspail, of farina.
The affinities of the order Characeoe are by no means
striking or satisfactorily determined. In being composed of
tubular colls, and in the disposition of these they exhibit a
relation to the Confervoid Algæ generally, in the arrangement
of their branches in whorls, and iu the circumstance of the
primary being crusted with other secondary and descending
cells, they manifest a relationship with the Batrachosperms
in particular. In their organs of reproduction, and in certain
other respects, they bear some resemblance to the Equi-
seta, I know not how exact hoAvever. The Characeoe are not
the only order of freshAvater Algæ possessing double organs
of reproduction : as, for example, Vaucheria. Linnæus first
referred the Characeoe to the Cryptogamia, but subsequently,
regarding the globules as stamens and the nucules as pistils,
he remoA’ed them to Monæcia Monandria amongst flowering
plants.
The Characeoe are almost universally distributed : they are
found abundantly both in fresh and stagnant waters, in all parts
of the world. They form an important link in the economy
of Nature, in life purifying by the liberation of oxygen during
respiration, the impure and almost pestilential waters in which
they are frequently and especially encountered, and in death
yielding by their decomposition elements which impart fertility
to the soil, and render it fit for the growth and nourishment
of plants of an order higher in the scale of organization
than themselves, and of more direct utility to man, the destined
recipient of all Nature’s bounties, and for whose benefit every
natural contrivance directly tends. L e t this thought impress
the heart with the conviction of the goodness of God towards
man, who often ungratefully omits to remember it, and
Avho therefore needs to be from time to time reminded of it.
The important part which the Characeoe take in the formation
of the earth’s strata, geological investigation has made strikingly
and beautifully manifest, their fossil remains having
been found in great abundance in the freshwater strata
covering the chalk formation in the Isle of Wight, and in the
marls of Forfarshire, and other places — their remains consisting
of portions of the stems, but principally of the nucules
which Lamark mistook for the shells of testaceous animals,
and acting under this impression named them Gyrogonites.
The fossil remains found in the calcareous marls of Forfarshire
have been identified as belonging to Chara hispida, the
same species still existing in a living state in great profusion
in the lakes which still cover portions of these marls.
The one grand purpose for which all cryptogamie vegetation
would appear to have been created, is the formation of soil
for the growth of productions more necessary to the wants of
man. First, the lichen, stunted and dry, but rich in salts,
appears on the face of the primordial rock. The rains of
Heaven descend upon it and moisten it, causing the dissolution
of -a portion of the rock itself : this it quickly imbibes
and retains in a more soluble form. I t lives its allotted time,
then dies, and decomposes, liberating Avhat it had derived from
the rock, together with the constituents of its own fabric. By
the continued and successive growth of the lichens, however,
a portion of the surface of the rock becomes holloAved out,
and a pool of water rests therein. The lichens now finding
this no longer a place fit for their developement, disappear.
F re long, however, the sporules of a moss or a conferva light
upon this spot, and finding therein the circumstances requisite
for their growth, grow and flourish there for a period. Fach
season they die also, and the quantity of their debris annually
increases, so th a t at last the pool is filled up : next in order
Equiseta, Carices, and Junci appear, and finally a soil is collected,
rich in the elements of fertility. The fungi assist much
In the formation of soil; but in a very different manner.