[ 1996 ] so.
C O N F E R V A corymhifera,
Corymbiferous Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algoe.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced within the substance of
the capillary or jointed frond, or in closed tubercles
united with it.
Spec. Char. Dull blackish g re en , much an d alternately
branched. Joints five times as long as broad. Fruit-
branches corymbose, lateral. Capsules terminal,
globose.
F o u n d by Mr. William Backhquse in a sluice of fresh
water near Darlington last September. Our most learned
friends in this tribe support us in the opinion that it is a
hitherto nondescript Conferva, very remarkable, for its mode
of inflorescence, at least among the fresh-water kinds.
The fronds are tufted, half an inch or more in height,
almost black when many together, but of a dull palish green
when separately examined. They are extremely slender,
much and repeatedly branched in an alternate order, the
lateral branches very short, often cloven. The joints are
equal, 5 or 6 times as long as broad. About the lower or
middle part of the frond grow several lateral, alternate, repeatedly
divided, level-topped or corymbose branches, whose
joints are short and tumid, and whose ultimate divisions bear
solitary, globose bodies, much thicker than the joints, which
bodies we presume from analogy to be capsules of seeds.