122 SEAWEEDS 
respects Caulerpa is the most singular type in the 
vegetable kingdom, since it attains a variety of habit 
rarely to be found within the limits of a very large 
order, though the plants are invariably composed of 
the branchings of a single cell. This cell obtains 
Fic. 30.—Caulerpa phyllaphlaston one-half natural size, (Ex. Phyc.Mcm.) 
the mechanical support, elsewhere given by cross- 
walls, from a system of trabeculae or narrow beams, 
branching and traversing the cell from wall to wall 
in all directions. No reproductive organs are known, 
and the only method of propagation that has been 
discovered is by the separation of proliferous shoots. 
