44 



THE AMERICAN MONTHLY 



[March, 



ends of the sack-like figures ; each 

 spore multiplies, and its product 

 multiplies until tens of thousands, 

 and millions are produced. 



The suspended figures F^ F, 

 represent half the natural size of the 

 groupings of cells, as developed in 

 less than two weeks ; ^ is a grou- 



ping more highly magnified. It 

 may surprise the uninitiated to hear 

 of the number of the so-called 

 plants (cells), in a small space. An 

 ordinary cell measures a ten thou- 

 sandth part of an inch in diameter 

 — hence in a line one-fourth of an 

 inch long there would be 2.500, 





and in a square mesuring one-fourth 

 of an inch each way no less than 

 625.000. These groupings, or fami- 

 lies, are often much larger and 

 hence contain millions of the " uni- 

 cellular plants." They are techni- 

 cally called " tetraspores." 



The Floridiese, the order of Algae 

 to which the genus Chantransia 



belongs, are accredited with two 

 modes of propagation, the one 

 sexual and the other assexual ; the 

 former I have found in but one 

 species, C. rnacrosjpora • in the 

 other species I have detected 

 neither carpogoniums, trichogy- 

 niums, nor spermatozoids. The 

 simple process of multiplication is 



