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2824
CH ARA pulchella.
Beautiful Char a.
C R YPTOGAMIA Characeoe.
Gen. Char. Stem spirally striated, articulated, bearing
whorled branches. Fructification of two
kinds ; spirally striated nucules, and coloured
globules.—Greville.
Spec. Char. Stem smooth, even, flexible. Branch-
lets articulated. Bracteas about equal to the
nucule. Nucule oblong.
Syn. Chara pulchella. Wallr. Ann. Bot.p. 184. t. 2.
Chara pulchella, y. globularis. Wallr. FI. Crypt.
Germ. v. 2. 108.
S t e m about 8 inches long, slender, branched, flexible
even when dry. Whorls consisting of 6—8 branchlets ;
lower ones barren, those in the middle longest. Branch-
lets consisting of about 8 articulations, each of which
is apparently again divided, in consequence of the small
tubes with which the main tube is coated having a single
septum in the centre of each articulation. In the barren
whorls, in the place where the bracteas ought to be developed,
there is a transverse, elliptic, raised spot. Upper
whorls shorter and more crowded; each branchlet supporting
3—4 nucules and globules. Globules minute, very evanescent.
Nucules oblong, at first pale, then brown with a
tinge of orange-red, at length black, often bleached in old
specimens, each accompanied by four bracteas, the longest
of which are nearly of the same length as the nucule. On
the opposite side to that on which they are produced, are
elliptic raised spots. The three last joints of the branch