F am. i l T H O R EÆ .
Char. Main filaments solid, inarticulate, filiform, branched,
beset xvith short byssoidal, simple, or sometimes ramose
and articulated fihrilla. Reproduction, according to
Kutzing, capsular, and springing from the fihrillai.
2. T H O R E A Bong.
Char. Same as those of the family.
Thorea Bory, in Annales du Museum, xii. 126. t. 18.
(excel, sp. fig. 34.) Ilydroph. Voy. Dupern. t. 24. fig. 3.
Agardh species, ii. 123. PolycomaVaïis, in Journ. Bot.
108. p. 123.
“ The Thorea appear to be related to the Batrachosperms,
Avith Avhich M. Decandolle has confounded the species discovered
by M. Thore. They ought to folloAV them in a
classification. Like them, they present filaments of tAvo
kinds, and they are, for the most part, slippery under the
fingers when one touches them ; but the filiform filaments
Avith which the plant is clothed are neither fasciculated nor
verticillate. Whatever may be the fructification of the
Thorea, it can never be disposed like tha t of the Batrachosperms,
Avhich consists of naked buds aggregated and placed
in the centre of the verticilli, or wholly formed by the
branches. _
“ With the exception of the last species, which is a parasite
of certain lichens, the Thorea are aquatic plants. They
dAvell in the coldest fountains, have an aspect which is
peculiar, extreme flexibility, the property of uniting themselves
into mucous masses at the sources of waters, adhere strongly
to paper in drying, and take on the appearance of life when
they are replunged into the liquid in which they have grown.”
— Bory de St. Vincent.
/ I t might be supposed by some, from what has been said
in reference to the affinities of Thorea Avith the Batrachosperms,
that it AATOuld naturally find a place amongst that
family, from which, however, it must be admitted, though
bearing certain resemblances to it, to be considerably estranged
by its solid and inarticulate filaments.
This genus was constituted by Bory, in honour of Dr. Thore,
“ Naturaliste de Dax, auteur d’une Chloris du département
des Landes,” by whom one of the species of the genus was
discovei'cd.
1. T h o r e a r am o s is s im a .
Plate X V I. Figs. 3, 4 .
Char. Filaments very long and much branched. Colours,
when recent, blackish green, turning to violet in drying.
Bory, in Annales du Museum, vol. xii. page 128. pi. 18.
fig. 1. Conf. hispida ramis vagis fiexuosis longissimis
obductis ramulis setaceis. Drap. ined. Conferva hispida
Thore, Mag. Encyc. t. vi. p. 398. Conferva hispida
Thore, Chloris, 442. Conferva Jlexuosa filamentis cylin-
draceis villosis subgelatinosis ; /3. aqua angusta, filamentis
ramosis, violaceo suhfuscis ; y. pannensis, filamentis ramo-
sissimis, violaceo griseis, Bory, I.e. t. ii. p. 366. Batracho-
spermum hispidum Cand. Syn. 12. ; Flor. Franc, ii.
p. 60. Th. Lehmanni Lyngb. t. 13.; Harvey in
Manual, page 120.
“ The Thorea ramosissima grows in the Adour, where it
adheres to stones, to rocks, to branches, and to the stems of
trees which are found upon its margins. I t is only to he
obtained there when the waters are low, in Ju n e and July.
I t is again met with in the Seine, between Neuilly and Paris,
attached to different bodies, and particularly to the bottom of
boats.
“ Prom a little disc fixed upon the inundated bodies, proceed
certain filaments of the size of an ordinary thread, Avhich
from their origin are ramified. The branches are always
F