C O N F E R V A radicans.
Creeping Dark Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algae.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced within the substance of
the capillary or jointed frond, or in closed tubercles
united with it.
Spec. Char. Olive brown. Filaments branched, creeping,
straight, somewhat rigid; branches obtuse.
Joints nearly twice as broad as long.
Syn. Conferva radicans. Dillw. Syn. n. 7 2 . t . C.
FO U N D growing upon rocks covered by the tide at Seaton,
Durham, by Mr. William Backhouse, in August 1807.
It forms dense upright tufts, from half an inch to an inch
high, of a dark olive-brown colour, and rather rigid texture,
at least when dry, in which state it does not adhere to glass or
paper. Miss Hutchins, who first found this species in Bantry
bay, and from whose dried specimens and drawings Mr. Dill-
wyn described it, observed the filaments to throw out roots
here and there from their base, being truly creeping, though
their upper part is erect. That lady alone has seen the/ructi-
fication, which consists of numerous, minute, lateral, sessile
or stalked, globular tubercles. The branches are scattered,
capillary, obtuse. Joints almost twice as broad as long, cylindrical,
not globular, though some of them here and there
are thicker than the rest. Their interstices are pale and pellucid.