florideæ

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. An order of (chiefly) marine algæ of a red or purple color. Their non-sexual propagation is by bodies called tetraspores, and the fruit or cystocarp is the product of the action of antherozoids upon a slender organ called the trichogyne. The latter transmits the fertilizing influence to its basal cell (trichophore), from which or from adjacent cells the cystocarp is developed. They are the same as the Rhodospermeæ of Harvey.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A subclass of algæ including all the red or purplish seaweeds; the Rhodospermeæ of many authors; -- so called from the rosy or florid color of most of the species.