Fig. 359. LYNGBYA FLACCA. 
Colour. Bright green. 
Substance. Very soft ; flabby. 
Character of Frond. Short tufts of straight, or gently curved, jointed threads {filaments)^ 
parasitic on other alg£e ; simple, or bearing here and there a few root-like branchlets. 
Filaments very slender ; finer than human hair. 
Joints. Half as long as broad ; at first more or less filled with colouring matter (endochrome) 
which afterwards contracts into a dark spot in the centre. 
Measurement. From half an inch to an inch long. 
Fructification. Minute seeds {zoospores) formed of the colouring matter in the joints, collected 
into a round central mass {sporidium)^ which in due time bursts out. 
Habitat, Our coasts generally. (Filey.) On various algae and in tide-pools. Not uncommon. 
Now Hormotrichum fiaccum. For other Lynghyas, see Plate LXXVIII. For the characters 
of Hormotrichum^ refer under Fig. 328. 
Fig. 360. HORMOSPOEA RAMOSA. 
Colour. Pale green. 
Substance. Gelatinous. 
Character of Frond. Very slender, tubular threads {filaments) ; more or less branched ; con- 
taining, when young, nearly cylindrical colour-cells ; when mature, distinctly oval 
or spherical ones ; the colouring matter {endochrome) within radiating in lines 
from a centre (a microscopic object). 
Measurement, From J to J an inch high. 
Fructification. Minute seeds {zoospores) formed of the coloured cells, which then become oval, 
and finally drop out. 
Habitat. Near Wareham, Dorsetshire, in a salt-water lake. 
152 
