. British marine algae : being a popular account of the seaweeds of Great Britain, their collection and preservation. Marine algae. Fig. 12a. (a) Conferva cerea, and portion of filament magnified ; (b) Conferva melagonium, and three cells magnified. tide. All the articulations, except the lowest, are about twice as long as broad, the endochrome or cell contents being of a dark green colour. A plant of this species is represented at b, and beside it, three joints from the centre of a filament. The long filaments of this species are gene- rally few in number, and are set some li
. British marine algae : being a popular account of the seaweeds of Great Britain, their collection and preservation. Marine algae. Fig. 12a. (a) Conferva cerea, and portion of filament magnified ; (b) Conferva melagonium, and three cells magnified. tide. All the articulations, except the lowest, are about twice as long as broad, the endochrome or cell contents being of a dark green colour. A plant of this species is represented at b, and beside it, three joints from the centre of a filament. The long filaments of this species are gene- rally few in number, and are set some little dis- tance apart, while those of C. cerea are more numerous, and grow in tufts closely packed to- gether. I have described these two plants under the names by which they have known, but I must inform my readers that their generic name now i3 Chceto- morpha, which is at once significant and charac- teristic, as having refer- ence to their bristle or hair-like appearance. Of course a good lens is indispensable in examining these minutely-jointed plants, otherwise specific distinctions cannot possibly be understood and appreciated. For ordinary purposes a watch- maker's eye-glass is sufficient, but to those who will take the trouble to acquire its use, a Stanhope lens is the algologist's true vade mecum. I now come to the puzzling but beautiful sub-genus, Cladophora, or branch-bearers. All the plants belonging to this family are branched, some most elaborately so; several species are very rigid and exceedingly difficult to display on paper, becoming often so entangled and interwoven as to tire the patience of the most expert manipulator. They are pro- pagated by a conversion of the granular contents of the joints or cells into zoospores, which, upon being cast loose from the cells of the plant, swim about like so many tiny animalcules. The process of development in the zoospores or reproductive bodies of the Cladophora is so exceed- ingly interesting, that I direct
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