CONFERVA nigra.
Slender Compound-jointed Conferva.
QRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
G en. Ciiar. Seeds produced within the substance of
the capillary or jo in te d frond, or in closed tuber,
cles united with it.
S p e c . C h a r . Reddish black, much and alternately
branched, slender, r ig id . Ultim ate branches
short, awlshaped, sometimes clustered. Joints
twice as lo n g as broad, compound. Capsules lateral,
solitary, ovate.
Syn. Conferva nig ra. Huds. 5 9 5 . With, 4. 131.
H ull. 3 3 1 . Dillw. Syn. 3 2 and 8 6 , n. 16 2.
C. atro-rubescens. Dillw. Conf. t. 7 0 .
O u R liberal friend Sir Thomas Frankland having furnished
us with an authentic collection of many of Hudson’s marine
plants, which he and the Key. H, Davies are among the very
few people, now living, who are competent to explain, we have
confirmed the above synonyms. Our specimen was found by
Mr. W . Borrer at Brighthelmstone, in July, 1811, nor is the
plant uncommon. A strict affinity exists between this species,
nigrescens, t. 1717, and fucoides, 1 .1743, and it ought to stand
next to them in a natural series.
The joints of this are rather longer, and composed of fewer
tubes laterally than either of those, but we do not presume to
lay much stress on these circumstances. Its short, lateral, awl-
shaped, clustered branches, which do not bear the fruit, are
indicated by Hudson and Dillwyn as characteristic, but we
have not always met with such. The capsules are scattered
laterally and solitarily upon branches that are subdivided in an
alternate manner, and are small, ovate, abrupt, reticulated;
sessile in our specimens, but Mr. Dillwyn has found them stalked.
The colour of the whole is reddish brown in a fresh state,
turning black by drying, as in all this tribe.