pandorina

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A genus of fresh-water algæ, giving name to the order Pandorineæ. Every family or cœnobium consists of sixteen cells, closely crowded together and surrounded by a thin gelatinous envelop, through which protrude two cilia from each cell. Non-sexual multiplication is accomplished by each of the sixteen cells breaking up into sixteen smaller cells, each of which becomes invested with a gelatinous envelop and grows to the size of the original parent colony. Sexual reproduction is by means of zygospores, which develop into colonies of sixteen cells similar to the original parent colony.