C H A R A vulgaris.
Common Chara.
M O N A N D R I A Monogynia.
G en. C har. Cal. none. Cor. none. Anthera feffile. Style
none. Berry with many feeds.
Spec. C har. Stem and leaves rough, ftriated, without
prickles. Leaves and leaflets tapering, channelled
above, not jointed.
S y n . Chara vulgaris. Linn. Sp. P I. 1624. ILudf. FI. An.
397. With. Bot. A r r . 10x5. Relh. Cant. 345.
Sibth. Oxi 1. Gartn. Sem. v . 1 . 1. 84.
C. vulgaris foetida. Rail Syn. 132.
C O M M O N in muddy ftagnant ditches, flowering in July.
The root is prefumed to be annual. The herb floats under
water, and is harih to the touch, foetid ; very brittle and gritty
when dry. Stems branched, ftriated, rough, but deftitute of
prickles. Leaves fix or eight in a whorl, as long as the joints
of the ftem, and of the fame texture, awl-fhaped, narrow,
pointed, channelled above ; the lower ones Ample ; the others
bearing on their upper fides rows of ereft leaflets, four in a#
duller, among which the flowers are placed, and thefe leaflets
are by Linnaeus and Juflieu deferibed as the calyx. The analogy
of Hippuris, to which (as Dr. Stokes and the moft intelligent
fyftematic writers have obferved) this genus is nearly
allied, makes us conceive the flower to be really a naked one.
The anthera is folitary, fitting at the bafe of the germen (or
fometimes unaccompanied by any germen), red or yellowifh,
in decay cracking into feveral angular portions. Germen ovate,
yellow or whitilh, fpirally ftriated, and crowned with five little
leaves. Fruit with a hard Ihell. Seeds imbeddedin a reddilh pulp.
It will eafily be perceived how naturally this genus comes
into Monandria Monogynia next to Hippuris. As it flowers
under water, no wonder if the nature of its anthera and pollen
be obfeure; but we cannot with -Gaertner (fee his preface, p.
33.) doubt the part we have deferibed to be the anthera.
It is the opinion o f our ingenious friend Mr. Correa, that the
impregnation may be performed within the ftem by a clan-
deftine communication between the anthera and germen, and
alfo that the five leaves which crown the germen are not (as
has been fuppofed) the ftigma, but the tips of a five-leaved calyx
clofely enfolding that part in a fpiral manner. This merits a
farther enquiry.