A popular history of British seaweeds : comprising their structure, fructification, specific characters, arrangement, and general distribution, with notices of some of the fresh-water algae / by D. Landsborough.
- David Landsborough
- Date:
- 1857
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: A popular history of British seaweeds : comprising their structure, fructification, specific characters, arrangement, and general distribution, with notices of some of the fresh-water algae / by D. Landsborough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
407/464
![Siphoned.] VAUCHEKIA. 847 ® itGi, rpil ^havebeenconjectDRd. nSned for some time, if it be ®anyof the filaments will fie numerous smaller filaments, mt derived from the growth of ed themselves to the parent Mice of a specimen tins in- • to place this species in his en covered with a parasite, rid Inn »«l 'f 111 capiW' prfcaW jlveml^®35 ’ . 3itach«t w nro' ,Gi ,ed? ns 01 plint?- rJli id ffell*defini found along with them in ditches and little waterfalls, and on damp ground. Common as Vaucherid are, they are very remarkable plants, and the investigation of them afforded great delight to the intelligent mind of Yaucher. Their power of resisting cold, and of sustaining high degrees of temperature, is very extraordinary. M. Yaucher mentions, that when he was making his experiments at Geneva, an intense frost set in, and froze the water in a vase in which his Vaucherid were kept. The frost continuing for a fortnight, he feared that, as they were enveloped in ice all that time, they would be completely destroyed ; but when thaw came, he found, to his great delight, that they had sustained no injury; and he had the satisfaction of seeing the grains germinating, as if they had never known frost. Were not this power granted to them, and especially to the seeds, they would soon be exterminated, as every winter they are frozen for weeks together. Their power of with- standing great heat is scarcely less remarkable, and not less necessary for the continuance of their existence. A very compact capsule envelopes the spore, and preserves the internal moisture from being dried up. Their seed in general ripens before the drought of summer, and when the shallow pools are dried up the seed lies in the mud till it](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28083933_0407.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
