OOPHYTA. 135 
Cuass ITI. Canopiastez. 
280. The plant-body in this important and interesting 
class isa branched filament, in which the protoplasm is 
continuous. These plants are, however, not to be consid- 
ered single-celled, but rather rows of cells which have not 
become separated from one another by partitions. 
281. The Green Felts (Vaucheriacew) are good repre- 
sentatives of the first order under this class. They are 
coarse, green, tubular plants which grow in abundance on 
the moist earth in the vicinity of springs, and in shallow 
running water, forming dense felted masses. 
282. The asexual reproduction consists of a separation of 
a part of the plant-body, sometimes a swollen lateral 
branch, sometimes only the protoplasm of such a branch. 
In the latter case the protoplasm may escape as a zodspore 
(A, Fig. 63) which eventually forms a wall around itself, 
and then proceeds to elongate into a new plant-body. 
283. Sexual reproduction takes place in lateral branches 
also. Both antherids and odgones develop as lateral pro- 
tuberances upon the main stem (og, og, h, Fig. 63). The 
male organ (antherid) is long and rather narrow, and soon 
much curved; its upper portion becomes cut off by a par- 
tition, and in it very small biciliate antherozoids are de- 
veloped in great numbers. The female organ (odgone) is 
short and ovoid in outline, and usually stands near the 
male organs. In it a partition forms near its point of 
union with the main stem; the upper portion becomes an 
odgone, and its protoplasm condenses into a rounded body, 
the germ-cell: at this time the wall of the odgone opens, 
and permits the entrance of the antherozoids which were 
set free by the rupture of the antherid-wall. 
