Bot. [L. chara name of some unidentified plant. The mod. botanical application appears to be due to Vaillant (d. 1722).]
Name of a genus of aquatic acrogenous plants, type of the N.O. Characeæ, having their axis covered with tubes on which calcareous matter is deposited, and emitting a fetid smell.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Chara … called by some hippuris.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 201. Aquatic plants, such as charæ, which absorb large quantities of carbonate of lime.
1884. Brit. & For. Ev. Rev., April, 280. In the transparent depths were suspended great green clouds of chara.
