CHLOROSPERME. 15 
tide. All the articulations, except the lowest, are about twice as long as 
broad, the endochrome or cell contents being of a dark green colour. A 
plant of this species is represented at b, and beside it, three joints from the 
centre of a filament. 
The long filaments of 
this species are gene- 
rally few in number, and 
are set some little dis- 
tance apart, while those 
of C. wrea are more 
numerous, and grow in 
tufts closely packed to- 
gether. I have described 
these two plants under 
the names by which they 
have been_long known, 
but I must inform my 
readers that their generic 
name now is Cheto- 
morpha, which is at once 
Fic. 12a. (a) Conferva erea, and portion of filament significant and charac- 
magnified ; (b) Conferva anelaag iia and + 4s : 
three cells magnified. teristic, as having refer- 
ence to their bristle or 
hair-like appearance. Of course a good lens is indispensable in examining 
these minutely-jointed plants, otherwise specific distinctions cannot 
- possibly be understood and appreciated. For ordinary purposes a watch- 
maker’s eye-glass is sufficient, but to those who will take the trouble to 
acquire its use, a Stanhope lens is the algologist’s true vade mecum. 
I now come to the puzzling but beautiful sub-genus, Cladophora, or 
branch-bearers. All the plants belonging to this family are branched, 
some most elaborately so; several species are very rigid and exceedingly 
difficult to display on paper, becoming often so entangled and interwoven 
as to tire the patience of the most expert manipulator. They are pro- 
pagated by a conversion of the granular contents of the joints or cells 
into zoospores, which, upon being cast loose from the cells of the plant, 
swim about like so many tiny awimalcule. The process of development 
in the zoospores or reproductive bodies of the Cladophora is so exceed- 
ingly interesting, that I direct the reader’s attention to the group of 
figures (13, 14,15), which represent the different stages of development 
in the endochrome or cell contents of Cladophora letevirens. Fig. 13 
represents a highly magnified portion of a filament at the moment that 
the terminal joint has formed a kind of wall or line of division, this being 
the first step in the process of cell division, and which results in the 
separation of the endochrome into two portions. Beside it (Fig. 14) is a 
filament with the cells and zoospores fully developed. On the upper and 
right wall of each cell is a slight projection, or expansion of the cell 
