g [ 1609 ]
CONFERVA lichenicola.
R ed Lichen Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in round, solitary, closed
tubercles, projecting from the frond, but united
with it.
Spec. Char. Red. Filaments upright, crowded, alternately
branched, roughish. Joints swelling, about
as long as they are broad.
F lN E specimens of this singular production, from Beech
trees of the New Forest, Hants, were communicated by
Charles Lyell, Esq. to Mr. Sowerby, who found it to be a
new Conferva, growing parasitically on Lichen Turneri, in-
clusus, and other erustaceous kinds, and to whom we are
obliged for a knowledge of its structure, as well as for its
name. I ought indeed to have observed, at p. 1556, that
Mr. Sowerby originally discovered and figured the jointed
structure of Byssus (now Conferva) aurea, which honour I
there gave unwittingly to my friend Mr. Dillwyn. I trust
the error, and its correction, will be pardoned.
The minute plant before us looks, to the naked eye, like
brick-dust scattered over the crust of the Lichens above mentioned.
The colour varies somewhat from an orange red to
a browner cast. The stems are scarcely a line in height, erect,
forming thick tufts, which under a moderate magnifier look
like velvet, but without any silky gloss. Under a microscope
of high powers they are found to be alternately branched,
roughish or downy, and composed of regular joints of a darker
colour than their interstices, of a swelling or somewhat globose
form, and each' about as broad as it is long. No fruit
has been detected,
J 806. ^ Sovser& y ,