Cryptogams or Flower less Plants — Algcz. 
III. CHLOROSPERME^E or CONFERVOIDEiE. 
The genera included under this Sub-order are exceedingly varied in aspect as well as in their methods of 
multiplication and reproduction. Some of the simpler forms consist of single microscopic cells which run through a 
period of vegetative existence, giving rise by repeated division to new individuals, and finally have their contents 
resolved into a number of minute motile- particles (zoospores) each capable of reproducing the parent form, or by 
fusion of their contents with that of another externally similar individual, give rise to spores often capable of 
remaining quiescent and withstanding drought for a long period before germinating and repeating the same cycle 
of changes. Such are the Desmidiese and their allies, familiar to microscopists, and frequent in freshwater pools 
upon our heaths and moorlands. 
A higher degree of complexity is presented by those species which occur in the form of delicate hair-like 
filaments, consisting of cells joined end to end. Many of these are very abundant in freshwater ponds and ditches, 
often rising to the surface in cloudy green, or if in a reproductive stage, yellowish, masses. In the filamentous 
species a prevalent mode of multiplication is by means of ZOOSPORES —portions of cell-contents, or sometimes the 
entire contents of a cell, set free by rupture of the cell-wall. These are capable of locomotion in water and 
ultimately of independent development as new individuals. A second mode of multiplication is by CONJUGATION, 
the union of different cells of the same or of different filaments by transverse connecting tubes through which the 
contents become mingled, resulting in a spore. In many genera a true sexual reproduction by means of 
antherozoids, and spores which are fertilised by their contact, takes place, though with manifold variations in the 
method. 
USES, &c.—Many mucilaginous Algae are esculent and are collected as food by the poor inhabitants of remote 
northern coast regions. The so-called Irish Moss or Carragreen (Ghondrus crispus) used by invalids, and the 
coarser forms in cattle-feeding, is a common British species. 
Wrack (Fucus) used formerly to be largely collected, and to some extent is still on our northern shores, in order 
to burn for the sake of its alkaline ash (kelp) and the iodine which it affords. This ash contains from 5 to nearly 
9 per cent, of carbonate of soda. Large use is made of Fucus as a manure on coast farms. 
Characeze is a small group usually associated with the Algae and agreeing with that Family in 
