CONFERVA scutulata.
Target 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 at
the base, densely combined into a depressed peltate
mass, rooted in the centre. Joints as broad
as long-.
J r OR this new and very curious Conferva we are indebted to
Mr. W . Borrer, who found it, growing parasitically upon Fucus
loreus, on the beach at Brighthelmston and Shoreham, Sussex,
in June 1811. Miss Hutchins however, as we understand, had
previously sent specimens and drawings of the same species,
from the Irish coast.
The Fucus is generally distorted at each spot where it nourishes
one of these singular parasites, whose aggregate root is
central and strong, deeply penetrating into the substance of the
plant that bears it, and much resembles that of an umbilicated
Lichen or Gyrophora. In like manner the under side of the
aggregate shield-like mass of the Conferva is all, except the
centre, unconnected with the Fucus. The upper side is shaggy
with the prominent, elongated, terminations of the individual
plants of Conferva, whose lower parts, bearing many
short blunt simple branches, are compacted into a dense, viscid,
pale, apparently homogeneous, mass. The joints throughout
seem to be about as broad as Iona:. O