226 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY 
plant is well fitted for much chlorophyll work, and conse- 
quently abundant food manufacture. It grows with remark- 
able rapidity. A Cladophora plant sometimes becomes broken 
into two or more pieces, when each may grow into a new plant; 
or at times the cells divide and form many small swimming 
spores, each of which may grow into 
a new plant. 
212. Vaucheria: habitat and struc- 
ture. Vaucheria is commonly called 
“green felt,” a name which suggests 
the characteristic appearance which it 
presents as it grows upon the moist 
surface of the earth, in pots, on grow- 
ing tables in the greenhouse, or upon 
damp, shaded soil out of doors. It 
also grows in pools of water, where it 
is distinguished from many other alge 
by its coarseness. Certain species of 
Cladophora are coarser than Vaucheria, 
; but their greater length and more 
em AGk: A branching alga @Xtensive branching will ordinarily 
(Cladophora) enable one to distinguish them. Plants 
This plant, but a small part that have been kept in a dish of water 
Sh ganar gs niga gre in the laboratory for a few days grow 
which cover the rocks and into a heavy, moss-like mass and are 
sticks upon wien at Svs: good material for study. The plant 
branches considerably (fig. 177), and 
the newest branches are the greenest and most active. The 
older portions may die, thus separating the branches from 
one another so that new individuals are formed by vegeta- 
tive reproduction. No cross walls appear in the vegetative 
part of the plant, and all the cells are within the tubular 
wall of the plant.? 
‘For details of reproduction by spore formation, see Cladophora and 
Ulothrix in Bergen and Caldwell, Practical Botany, or Bergen and Davis, 
Principles of Botany. 2 Such a plant is called a ceenocyte. 
