Nitella appears to have a somewhat different mode of fructification to that of its congener. It puts forth a long filamentous branch from one of its joints, which, on reaching the surface of the water, terminates in a whitish fruit-like cluster. It is even a more delicate and less robust algal than chara, and every care should be taken to imitate the still water in which it grows. It delights in shady woods and in calcareous open pools.
Similar care is requisite with regard to Vallisneria; and a more equal temperature is better suited to the growth of this aquatic plant. It should be planted in the middle of the jar or aquarium, about two inches deep in mould, closely pressed down, then gently fill the jar with water. When the water requires changing, a small portion only should be run off at a time. It appears to thrive in proportion to the frequency of changing the water, and taking care that the water added rather increases the temperature than lowers it.
The natural habitat of the Frog-bit, another water-plant of much interest, is found on the surface of ponds and ditches; in the autumn its seeds fall, and become buried in the mud at the bottom during the winter; in the spring these plants rise to the surface, produce flowers, and grow throughout the summer. Chara may be found in many places around London, and in the upper reaches of the Thames.
Anacharis alsinastrum.—This remarkable plant is so unlike any other water-plant that it may be at once recognised by its leaves growing in threes round a slender stem. It is also known as “Waterthyme,” from a resemblance it bears to that plant.
The colour of the plant is deep green; the leaves are nearly half an inch long, by an eighth wide, egg-shaped at the point, with serrated edges. Its powers of increase are prodigious, as every fragment is capable of becoming an independent plant, producing roots and stems, and extending itself indefinitely in every direction. The specific gravity of it is so nearly that of water, that it is more disposed to sink than float. A small branch of the plant is represented, with a hydra attached to it, in a subsequent chapter.
The special cells in which the circulation is most readily seen are the elongated cells around the margin of the leaf and those of the midrib. On examining the leaf with polarised light, the cells are observed to contain a large proportion of silica, and present a very interesting appearance. A bright band of light encircles the leaf, and traverses its centre. In fact, the leaf is set, as it were, in a framework of silica. By boiling the leaf for a short time in equal parts of nitric acid and water, a portion of the vegetable tissue is destroyed, and the silica rendered more distinct, without changing the form of the leaf.
It is necessary to make a thin section or strip from the leaf of Vallisneria for the purpose of exhibiting the circulation in the cells, as shown in [Fig. 290], No. 4. Among the cell granules, a few of a more transparent character than the rest, are seen to have a nucleolus within.
The phenomenon of cell cyclosis occurs in other plants beside those growing in water. The leaf of the common plantain or dock, Plantago, furnishes a good example, the movement being seen both in the cells of the plant and hairs of the cuticle torn from the midrib.
Cell-division.—In order to study the process of cell-division the hairs on the stamens of Tradescantia should be taken. Remove one from a bud on a warm day and let a drop of a one per cent. sugar solution fall upon it, and cover it with a thin glass cover. Place it for a short time in a moist-chamber ([Fig. 256]), and then examine it with a magnifying power of 500 diameters. The nucleus of the cell will be seen, near its terminal position, to gradually elongate in the direction of the longer axis of the cell and become more granular, while the protoplasm moves towards the extreme end; the nucleus at the same time will present a striated appearance, with the fibrilla arranged parallel to the longer axis of the nucleus, and at length approach each other at the poles. A nuclear spindle will now be produced, and the fibres ruptured in the equatorial plane, so that two nuclei will be found in place of the one. The best preparations of nuclei are obtained by making thin longitudinal sections of actively-growing plants (young rootlets of Pinus, for example), and staining them with hæmatoxylin in the manner described in a former chapter.