bl [ 1761 3
CONFERVA flocculosa.
Disjointed Fresh-water Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
G e n . C h a r . Seeds produced within the substance of
the capillary or jointed frond, or in closed tubercles
united with it.
S p e c . C h a r . Green. Filaments capillary, mostly simple,
compressed. Joints quadrangular, transversely striated
; at length separating at their alternate edges,
and divaricated.
Syn. Conferva flocculosa. Roth. Catal. v. 1. 192. t. 4.
f . 4 . and t. 5 . f . 6. Dillw. Conf. t. 28.
F ir s t discovered in England by Mr. Dillwyn and Mr. Joseph
Woods junior, growing on decayed vegetables in a pool on
Hampstead heath. We have received specimens from Norfolk
by favour of Mr. Turner.
Well might its original discoverers mistrust their own eyes
when they saw the wonderful structure of this plant. It forms
light-green or brownish tufts about a quarter of an inch high,
consisting of dense filaments, scarcely, if at all, branched, as
fine as a human hair, compressed, at length separating at one
of their edges only, (the other continuing attached ’to its
neighbouring joint), so that the joints become divaricated in
an alternate order. They are transversely and regularly striated,
and marked besides with a central, colourless, pellucid, longitudinal
line. Each joint is commonly about as broad as long.
Of the fructification nothing is known.