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CH A R A ASPERA.
Small bristly Chara.
C l a s s a n d O r d e r MONffiCIA MONANDRIA, Linn. Sp. P I—MONANDRIA
MONOGYNIA, Smith—CRYPTOGAMIA ALG®, Linn. Fl. Lapp, et Gen. PI.
—CRYPTOGAMIA EILICES, Wahl—Part of ALG®, Agardh.—S a t . O r d .
NAYADES, Juss. De CanA—HYDROCHARIDIBUS affinis, Pr.—CHARA-
CE®, Richard.
GEN ERIC CHARACTER.
Caulis spiraliter striatus, articulatus, ramulis verlicillatis. Fructus duplex;
nucitlce spiraliter striatce et globuli cohrati.
Stem spirally striated, articulated, bearing whorled ramuli. Fructification
of two k in d s; spirally striated nucules, and coloured globules.
S PE C IF IC CHARACTER.
C h a r a a spera; caule tenui, striato, strigoso, aculeis sparsis, patentissimis, ramulis
sub.senis, suberectis.
C. stem slender, striated, strigose, prickles scattered, very spreading, the
ramuli about six, nearly erect.
C h a r a a s p e r a , Willd. Act. Nat. Bot. v . 3. p . 298.— Wallr. Ann. Bot. p . 185.
t. 6 . f. 3 .—Bruzel, Char. p . 12. 2 2 .—Ag. Syst. Alg. p . ISO.
C h a r a h is p id a , v a r. Wahl. Fl. Lapp. e d . 2. p . 492.
H a b . In fresh-water. Orkney, Mr C h a r l e s C l o u s t o n . I t has also been
subsequently found in Prestwick Carr, county of Northumberland, by
W i l l ia m R o b e r t s o n , Esq. of Newcastle.
Stem 3-6 inches long, simple or slightly branched, not thicker than a bristle,
delicately striated with green ribs, rough with solitary, scattered, horizontal
or deflexed prickles. Ramuli verticillate, nearly erect, very slender,
about six in number, with rudiments of other ramuli, resembling
prickles, at the joints. The fructification consists of globules and nucules.
The globules, placed opposite to the articulations, on the inner
side o f the ramuli, are small and p a le ; their membranous covering composed
of indistinct triangular scales, and containing elastic, annular,
curved white filaments. The nucules are small, yellowish, not distinctly
spirally striated, rarely situated on the same articulation with the
globules, though mostly on the same ram u li; within, filled with a mass
of unequal peUucid granules.
The whole plant has a deposition o f calcareous matter beneath the epidermis,
b u t not in sufficient abundance to affect the green colour, though
it is thereby rendered rather brittle in the dry state.
VOL. VI.
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