128 



FOOTNOTES FROM 



gelatinous mass of shapeless filth, is found to be com- 

 posed of a thousand delicate and exquisitely formed 

 threads or filaments, which branch, radiate, and inter- 

 lace like the most beautiful net- work (Fig. 17). Each 

 of these threads is a transparent tube filled with endo- 

 chrome, or little green cells, forming different figures, 

 placed at regular intervals, and containing minute germs 

 floating in mucilaginous matter. This internal matter 

 is the fructification. When two filaments approximate, 

 each throws out from one side a small process, which 



Fio. 17, CONFERVA 



unites with a corresponding process from the side of the 

 other ; the two ends of the processes become absorbed, 

 and the interval between the two plants is thus bridged 



over by a transverse tube. The endochrome of the one 







cell then passes through the communication thus formed 

 into the other, and the contents of both cells become 

 intimately mixed and form a round mass, which ulti- 

 mately becomes the seeds or spores by which new 

 plants of the same kind are destined to be produced. 



