CHAPTER-HOUSE

(Lat. capitulum.) In Architecture, the apartment (usually attached) of a cathedral or collegiate church in which the heads of the church or the chapter meet to transact busine . CHARACE^. (Chara, one of the genera.) A natural order of Acrogens entirely destitute of a vascular system, and composed almost exclusively of tubes; placed by Linnaeus near to Lichens and to Phaenogamous plants; by Ju ieu and De Candolle, with Naiad a cete; by Brown, at the end of Hydrocharacece; by Leman, to HaloragetB; by Von Martins, Agardh, and Wallroth, to Confer vce; and finally admitted as a distinct order by Richard, Kunth, De Candolle, Adolphe Brogjiiart, Greville, Hooker, and others: consists of but two genera, which inhabit the fresh and salt waters of most countries. They are remarkable for the distinctne with which the rotation of their fluids may be seen under the microscope. In the opinion of some Italian writers, the insalubrity of the neighbourhood of Rome is owing to the great quantity of chara which inhabits all the pools, and renders them intolerably offensive. [s. 227]