Aquatic Thallophyta

The aquatic thallophytes are the study of algae. A variety of algae members occur on the globe which are economically very important for human beings. Sevaral algae used as fodder, food, medicine and fertilizer. For future generation the algal flora may be the source of energy. The algal members distributed in all types of water present on the earth. The thallophytes consist of a vast assemblage of plants which range from microscopic, unicellular forms to large multicellular plants, some of which are more than two hundred feet long. The thallophytes comprise two main subdivisions, the algae (Phycophyta) and the fungi (Mycophyta). The aquatic thallophytes consist of 18,000 species. With a few exceptions, the algae possess chlorophyll, although many of them, particularly the red algae and the brown algae are not green in colour, because of the presence of other pigments which mask the green colour of chlorophyll. The book covers description of 67 types of thallophytes, among which 15 algae from Cyanophyta, 36 (Chlorophyta), 2 (Xanthophyta), 6 (Phaeophyta), 1 (Bacillariophyta) and 7 algae from group Rhodophyta has been described in these notes.