loo PLANT LIFE. 



which the plant is kept, it can be made to reproduce itself 

 by the sexual or asexual mode at pleasure. 



Multinucleatse. 



The most pronounced character presented by the 

 members of the present group, is the high phase of differen- 

 tiation of the individual cell. The species are unicellular 

 during the vegetative condition ; but this one cell assumes 

 in many species gigantic proportions, and in the species 

 of Caulerpa is divided into portions which resemble in 

 general appearance the root, stem, and leaves of an 

 ordinary plant, all perfectly continuous and composed of 

 a single cell, which is furnished inside with solid strands 

 of cellulose stretching from wall to wall and forming an 

 irregular network, the functions of which are to give strength, 

 and also to convey assimilated food from one portion of the 

 cell to another. In the genus Acetabularia the cell presents 

 the appearance of a small mushroom with a long slender 

 stem, bearing at its apex a spreading umbrella-like cap, 

 the whole consisting of a single, much-branched cell. The 

 name MuUinucleatce is derived from the fact that a very 

 large number of nuclei are present in the cell. 



Asexual reproduction by zoospores, and the highest 

 forms are also reproduced sexually by the formation of 

 highly-specialized antheridia and oogonia. 



In the genus Vaucheria, several species of which are 

 common in shallow, sluggish ditches, or in shady places 

 on damp ground, where they form bright green felt-like 

 expansions, the sexual mode of reproduction is most 

 perfect. During the vegetative condition the plant is 

 unicellular, the cell being usually very long and irregularly 

 branched, and containing bright green chlorophyll and 



