OOPHYTA. 137 
: plant-body is greatly elongated and branched, and all its 
vegetative portion is continuous; the reproductive portions 
only are separated from the rest of the plant-body by 
partitions. 
286. The asexual reproduction is very much the same as 
in Green Felt. It may be briefly described as follows: 
The protoplasm in the end of a branch becomes somewhat 
condensed, a partition forms, cutting off this portion from 
the remainder of the filament, and the whole of its contents 
becomes converted by internal cell-division into zoéspores 
provided with one or two cilia (Fig. 64,1). These soon 
escape from a fissure in the wall and are active for a few 
minutes, after which they come to rest and their cilia dis- 
appear (2 and 3). In one or two hours they germinate by 
sending out a filament (4), from which a new plant is 
quickly produced. 
287. The sexual organs also bear a close resemblance to 
those of Green Felt. The odgones are spherical, or nearly 
so (in most of the species), and contain from two to many 
germ-cells, which are fertilized by means of antherids, 
which usually develop as lateral branches just below the 
odgones. In some species the antherids and odgones are * 
upon the same plants, and in such cases the fertilization 
takes place by the direct contact of the antherid and the 
passage of its contents into the odgone by means of a tubu- 
lar process from the former; in other species the plants 
are dicecious, and in them the antherids produce motile an- 
therozoids, by means of which the fertilization is effected. 
After fertilization each germ-cell becomes covered with a- 
wall of cellulose and is thus transformed into a resting 
spore. 
288, What is given above may be taken to illustrate the 
