C 547 ]
C O N F E R V A byffoides.
Tufted Conferva.
CRY P T 0 GA M IA Alga.
G e n . C h a r . Seeds produced in round, folitary, clofed
tubercles, projecting from the frond, but united
with it.
S p e c . C h a r . Purplifh brown, doubly branched, ob-
fcurely jointed, thickly fet with 'minute, doubly
branched, and finely jointed tufts. Capfules from
thofe tufts, folitary, globofe, dark brown.
Syn. Fucus byfloides. Gooden. & Woodw. in Linn.
Tranf. V. 3 . 22 9 .
F O R this elegant, though not very uncommon, fea weed we
are obliged to Mr. D. Turner, who found it on the Ihore at
Yarmouth, with its fructification, in Auguft. In compliance
with his opinion and that of the late Mr. Lightfoot, confirmed
indeed beyond a doubt by our own examination, we remove it
from the Fuel, with which Dr. Goodenough and Mr. Woodward,
not without hefitation, have affociated it. Thofe gentlemen
remark, that though “ all the branches feemjointed,
“ thofe joints are obfervable only where there is a branch, or
“ where one has iffued forth; ” which however holds good
only in the Item and leading branches. This Conferva is
remarkable for the feries of little tufted compound branches,
very finely divided, ranged all along its item and chief ramifications,
and the filaments of all thefe tufts are as completely
jointed as thofe of any other fpecies. They alfo bear the fructification,
which is a fmall, feflile, globular, pointed, folitary
capfule, pellucid in itfelf, but full of deep-red feeds. The
capfule feems to burft at the fummit, a character fuppofed
rather to belong to thé genus Fucus ; but we have yet much to
learn upon this fubjeCt, and the jointed ftruCture of the plant is
by common confent for the prefent taken as the moil decifive
character of a Conferva. The dark parenchymous line is to be
feen, as Mr. Turner obferves, in this and many other fpecies.
In this it is compound, confifting of feveral parallel lines, like
the tubes of the common cane (a fpecies of palm), or ftill more
like the ftruCture of corals and corallines.
All the branches, are alternate and gradually fmaller upwards,
Its colour when frefh is often a bright red.