Fresh-Water Algae of the United States: (exclusive of the Diatomaceae) complemental to Desmids of the United States (Classic Reprint)

THERE is a period in the life-history of Fresh-water Algse
which has not received the consideration the subject deserves.
We mean an intermediate period between the niicrogonidia or
spore, or the first development from it, and the matured plant.
It is a period unlike anything known among the higher forms of
vegetation. The phamogauious plants blossom, and bear seed,
some in edible masses known as fruits, some in hard-shelled
envelopes as the nuts, others have the seeds in pods, and so on ;
the seeds germinate and at once reproduce the original type.
Cryptoganious plants are not usually so direct in the reproduc-
tion ; they propagate from spores which in many, perhaps most,
instances divide into parts, two or four, and these redivide often
many times over, and then develop a prothallus, a peculiar sort
of filamentous growth, from which the true plant grows. In
the case of the Fungi this ante-growth is called mycelium. Under
circumstances not favorable to reproduction this mycelium will
grow into large masses. It is found in dark cellars and in
neglected mines often filling the galleries scores of feet in extent,
sometimes to a depth of two or three feet, yet never producing a
single plant ; on the other hand, under favorable circumstances,
the true plant will develop rapidly with scarcely a visible sign
of a mycelium.

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