On Molecular and Microscopic Science, Volume 1 (of 2)Somerville, Mary
History
On Molecular and Microscopic Science, Volume 1 (of 2)
Somerville, Mary
Matter -- Constitution; Microscopy; Natural history
In the Ulvas, which are multilocular plants, some cells are selected to
bear fruit, and others not. The granular endochrome of these chosen
cells divides into several parts, which are at first in close contact
and at rest; then they become restless, acquire four or a greater number
of cilia, and pass through a fracture in the cell wall into the water,
in which they swim freely as zoospores. After a time they come to rest,
attach themselves to some object, and begin to grow. The walls of the
cells which have thus discharged their endochrome in the form of
zoospores, remain as colourless spots on the frond. The whole colouring
matter of a portion of the frond may escape as zoospores, leaving behind
it nothing but a white membrane. With a microscope, this process may
sometimes be observed in all the different stages of its progress.
Every full-grown Ulva has its own precise and definite form, but
whatever that may be, the young plants on their first appearance from
the shore are in all respects similar to Confervas; the top cells soon
divide, and a plane or sac-like frond is formed.
Certain Ulvas, which have a yellow tint, produce small zoospores with
only two cilia, but in the Ulva bullosa and the Ulva latissima four
zoospores are produced in the same cell, each having four cilia. The
same fructification prevails also in the purple Ulvas—Porphyra laciniata
and vulgaris. The latter is seen in winter and the early spring,
covering the rocks near high water mark, with its tiny bright purple
lanceolate leaves. Later in the season it grows into a flat narrow
ribless frond with a pointed end, and about two feet long, the margin of
the frond becoming waved and plaited as the plant increases in growth.
At a later period, it is seen mixed with the Porphyra laciniata, which
is a ribless flat frond of a dull purple; sometimes it is very thin,
divided or torn, and occasionally growing in a circle round its root.
Both forms are sold as laver.[40]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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