2io BA TEA CHOSPERMEsE. J>AKT n. 



plastic substance, arrange themselves also into green 

 and vacant rings, and after various and complicated 

 changes, each green ring forms itself into a kind of 

 plastic primordial free cell, which, after being fertilized 

 by the moving bodies, gets a stronger coat. The green 

 matter becomes first of a red-brown colour, then red ; 

 and after leaving the parent cell it is invested with a 

 plaited cellulose coat, and becomes a star-like resting 

 spore which may produce a new plant. No cryptogamic 

 plant exhibits a greater variety in the modes of action of 

 the vital forces, none more activity in the motile powers. 

 In some of these Confervse, the moving male filaments, 

 or spermatozoids, instead of escaping singly from their 

 prison cell in confusion into the water, are discharged in 

 a mass enclosed in a capsule furnished with cilia, which 

 moves with its lively burden like a zoospore, till a lid 

 falls off which sets them free. 



Some pretty plants allied to the Confervse are called 

 Batrachospermese, from the resemblance which their 

 beaded filaments bear to the spawn of a frog. They are 

 all inhabitants of fresh water, chiefly of gently flowing 

 streams, and are so flexible that they yield to every 

 movement of the water, and when taken out of it are 

 like a mass of jelly. Their colour is usually a brownish- 

 green, but sometimes it is of a reddish or bluish purple. 

 The central stem of the plant, though originally formed 

 of a single row of large cylindrical cells placed end to 

 end, gets an investment of cells, or rather branches, which 

 ultimately becomes a thick cylindrical stem, bearing, 

 at nearly regular intervals, whorls of short radiating 

 branches, each composed of rounded cells, arranged in 

 a bead-like row, and sometimes branching again. Some 

 of the radiating branches grow out into transparent 

 points, which may possibly be antheridia, and contain 

 motile bodies ; for within certain cells in other branches 

 resting spores are found, which are agglomerated and 



