Vermont Botanical and Bird Club 17 



of continuous tubes. Reproduction is more commonly by special cells 

 constituting antheridia and oogonia, or by asexual spores. 



Of the green algae of this group five genera are of frequent repre- 

 sentation. Species of Cladophora. or water flannel, occur in tangled 

 masses of stout-branched filaments in streams and ponds. Vaucheria, 

 or green felt, forms dense felted masses in shallow water or on moist 

 earth. Potrydium. a balloon-shaped green algae, occasional on moist 

 ground, is often found along with Vaucheria. Nitella and Chara are 

 genera characterized by whorls of free branches, and are found in 

 the still waters of streams and ponds. They may attain a height of 

 several inches, and grow in upright attached masses. 



The phylum phaeophyceae or brown algae consists mainly of 

 marine plants, and no representatives are reported from Vermont. 



The phylum Rhodophyceae, or red algae, although comprising 

 marine forms mostly, has two freshwater forms within the state, rep- 

 resentatives of the genera Chantransia and Batrachospermum. 



Chantransia violacea forms a purplish mat on wet rocks, the in- 

 dividual plants being about a quarter of an inch long. They are deli- 

 cately branched plants, not having a gelatinous sheath, and reproduc- 

 ing sexually by a carpogonium and antheridium. From my own 

 limited collecting this plant would seem rare in Vermont, being found 

 at a single station in a mountain brook. 



The genus Batrachospermum is represented by the species 

 gelatinosum, and consists of a main cylinder of elongated cells sur- 

 rounded by a cortex of smaller cells containing the chloroplasts and a 

 reddish coloring matter, the whole being invested within a gelatinous 

 sheath. At more or less regular intervals this rudimentary stem is 

 beset with clusters of delicate branches. This plant is attached, as is 

 Chantransia, and branches freely, sometimes attaining a height of sev- 

 eral inches. It is confined to cold streams of the mountains, where 

 it is not infrequent, being noted in about a dozen stations. These two 

 red algae are both plants of the mountains, and, it seems to me, are 

 the most beautiful of all. 



This group completes the enumeration of our most common algae. 

 Within this brief survey we have traced an evolution from a plant 

 consisting of a single spherical cell to one having a rudimentary stem 

 of several cells thickness, from a plant of microscopic size to one 

 of several inches in height, from a plant reproducing by simple cell fis- 

 sion to one having special cells set aside for reproduction. The algae re- 

 veal to us the early struggles of nature in building up the plant world, 

 and are witnesses of some of her most fantastic experiments. To study 



