hypnea

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of red or purple algæ?, belonging to the order Florideæ and the type of suborder Hypneæ. They have filiform fronds, virgately branched, with subulate branchlets, composed of an internal layer of large roundish-angular cells, which become smaller outward, and a cortex of small, colored, polygonal cells. The tetraspores are zonate, and the cystocarps are external and borne on the branchlets. The genus contains 25 or 30 species, mostly tropical and ill-defined. H. musciformis is found on the southern coast of New England.