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C O N F E R V A brachiata.
Cross-armed Soft Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga.
G e n . C h a r . Seeds produced within the substance of
the capillary or jointed frond, or in closed tubercles
united with it.
S p e c . C h a r . Light brown, very much branched,
slender, wavy, entangled ; the branches opposite,
crossing each other, widely spreading, with taper
points. Joints cylindrical, twice as broad as long.
■ FOUND by Mr. Hooker, in salt marshes at Cley, Norfolk,
in April 1808, growing amongst Ulva compressa. Mr. Turner
had long before (in March 1801) gathered the same in ditches.*
near the river, at Caistor, by Yarmouth.
We have hitherto refrained from publishing this plant, because
it was supposed to be possibly one of the many varieties of C.
littoralis, t. 2290. On a careful examination however, it seems,
that the widely spreading direction of its chief branches, which are
opposite, and cross each other in pairs, is a clear and sufficient
mark of distinction. The colour is a pale tawny or sandy brown.
Joints in shape and size agreeing with littoralis. Some of them
are, now and then, singularly tumid and globose; an appearance
to be attributed perhaps to disease, scarcely to impregnation.