/ .y [ 2330 ]
CONFERVA pennata.
Pinnated Brown Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algae.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced within the substance of
the capillary or jointed frond, or inclosed tubercles
united with it.
Spec. Char. Olive brown, much branched. Branches
densely pectinated. Joints broader than long.
Partitions dark-coloured. Capsules roundish,
scattered, sessile or stalked.
Syn. Conferva pennata. Huds. 6 0 4 . With. v. 4. 142.
H ull. 3 3 5 . Dillw. Conf. t. 8 6 . Syn. 8 7 . n. 166.
w E have received this from Miss Biddulph at various times,
and lastly from Mr. W. Borrer, who has added the larger variety,
with stalked rather oblong fruit, found by himself at
Beachey head, as mentioned in Dillvvyn’s Synopsis.
C. pennata grows in the sea, on rocks, corallines and submarine
plants, and has, according to Mr. Diltwyn, been generally
overlooked for a small or bad state of C. scoparia, 1 .1552,
as indeed it might well be, without examination. It appears
by Hudson’s reference to be preserved in Petiver’s Hortus Siccus
for the C. marina pennata of Dillenius in Ray’s Synopsis,
which is really scoparia.
The plant before us composes bushy tuffs, from half an inch
to two inches high, of an olive brown, and is twice or thrice
branched, the ultimate branches ranged in a double crowded
series, opposite to each other, and spreading, so as to be truly
pectinated, Sometimes they vary a little from this precise order.
The partitions are dark, and the joints generally broader
than long. The capsules are round or a little oblong, of a
rather darker brown, scattered, either sessile or more or less
stalked. They seem to strengthen the probability of what we
have drawn in t, 1552 being the fruit of C. scoparia.