CO NFERV A ilicicola.
Yellow) Holly Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in round, solitary, closed
tubercles, projecting from the frond, but united
with it.
Spec. Char. Permanent tawny yellow. Filaments
upright, tufted, alternately branched. Joints even,
nearly as broad as they are long.
F o u n d by Mr. Lyell on the smooth bark of hollies in the
New Forest in the spring. Sometimes it invests specimens of
Lichen inclusus.
The whole is of a deep, or rather tawny, yellow, which,
after several months’ experience, we have found not to change
by keeping. The filaments form little tufts, scattered more
or less distantly over the bark, and scarcely half a line in
height. Each filament is alternately branched, equal in thickness
throughout, and, as far as can be discovered, of an even
surface; but being only one 2000dth part of an inch in diameter,
its precise structure is not easily seen. The joints however
are observed by Mr. J. D. Sowerby to be Scarcely at all longer
than they are broad, on which we would principally found its
specific difference from Conferva aurea, t. 212, whose joints
are twice or thrice as long as they are broad, frequently more,
and by no means of an uniform thickness. Under high magnifiers
we have sometimes seen a number of lateral sessile
globules on C. ilicicola, but we dare not aver them to be fructification.