Abstract

Chara is an old genus and has attracted the interest of many former investigators, yet still a number of aspects of its biology remains unsolved. Among these, the site of meiosis has never been reported definitely in any member of the charophyta. The measurements of the nuclear DNA is an efficient means of clearing the nuclear history of an organism,especially with those in which the definite chromosome figures are difficult to observe. The validity of DNA measurements by the use of Feulgen-stained preparations has been well established and extensively discussed (Ris and Mirsky, 1949; Lessler, 1953; Swift, H., 1953 Kasten, 1958; Garcia, 1956). In the present investigation the two-wavelength microspectro-photometric method (Patau, 1952; Ornstein, 1952) has been employed for the determination of the amount of nuclear DNA in the materials of Chara zeylanica Willd.