CHAPTER VII 
PHYLUM I. MYXOPHYCEAE 
THE SLIME ALGAE 
213. The Slime Algae are the lowest and simplest 
plants, and are often so minute as to require the highest 
powers of the microscope for their study. Some of them 
are single cells, while others are rows or masses of similar 
or slightly different cells. In most Slime Algae the cells 
are poorly developed, the walls being soft and easily 
gelatinized and usually containing chitin, the nuclear 
matter diffused and not bounded by a nuclear membrane, 
and the cytoplasm containing no plastids. 
214. The dominant coloring matter of the cells, phy- 
cocyanin, which is blue, is mostly distributed through- 
out the protoplasm, and mixed with the chlorophyll and 
more or less carotin give the blue-green, brown-green, 
or smoky color found in this group. In the hystero- 
phytes these are wanting. 
215. They reproduce asexually by fission, 
and the formation of spores, and in the fila- 
mentous forms by the breaking of the filaments ; 
into short segments (hormogones) each of fe. 50— 
which then grows into a long filament. No tie Sivso- 
sexual reproduction is known. oo 
216. The Slime Algae mostly live in the water, getting 
their nourishment from the solutions it contains. The 
green plants (holophytes) are able to use carbon dioxide, 
but those not green (hysterophytes) are typically par- 
asitic or saprophytic. 
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