A .
B .
P l a t e CCCLIV. A .
CONFERVA ARENICOLA, Berh.
Gen. C h a r. Filaments green, attached or floating, unbranched, composed
of a single series of cells or articulations. Fruit, aggregated granules
or zoospores, contained in the articulations, and having, at
some period, a proper ciliary motion. C o n f e r v a ( P f e .) ,—from
conferruminare, to consolidate; because some of the species were
used by the ancients for binding up fractured limbs.
C o n f e r v a arenicola; “ threads soft, simple, extremely fine, matted, somewhat
crisped, at first uniform pale green, a t length distinctly jointed ;
articulations once and half as long as broad, dotted ; interstices pellucid.”—
Berh.
Conferva arenicola, Bes-h. Gl. Br. Alg. p. 36. t. 13. f. 3. Harv. Man ed
1. p. 128. ed. 3. p. 207.
H ab . Salt marshes, within reach of th e tide. Rev. M . J . Berkeley.
D esck. “ Creeping on the sandy margins of pools in a salt marsh periodically
flooded, forming a thin, soft, delicate, crisped web of a pale yellow-green.
Threads extremely slender, flexuous, at first self-coloured with a few scattered
dots, then with manifest dissepiments, and finally the granules contract
and form a distinctly defined mass of a darker green in the centre, with pellucid
interstices. Articulations l i as long as broad. When dry the articulations
are alternately contracted.”—Berk. I. c.
I am indebted to Mr. Berkeley, from whose ‘ Gleanings’ I copy
the above account, for a loan of the original specimen from
which his description was prepared. This I have used in
preparing the magnified portion of the figure. Except in colour,
this plant bears a close resemblance to C. implexa. I am not
aware that it has been noticed more than once.
A. Fig. 1. Web of Conferva arenicola, as presented to the naked eye.
2. Filaments from the same -.— highly magnijied.