ULVA pavonia.
Turkey-feather Laver.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algce.
Gen. Char. Frond membranous or gelatinous. Seeds
solitary, scattered, throughout its substance, under
the cuticle.
Spec. Char. Frond membranous, flat, kidney-shaped,
with a taper base. Seeds in transverse arched
lines.
Syn. Ulva pavonia. Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12. v. 2.
719. Huds. 566. With. v. 4. 121. Hull. 311.
Lightf. 966.
Fucus maritimus, gallo pavonis pennas referens. Ran
Syn. 43. Ellis’s Corallines 88. t. 33.
F o u n d on submarine rocks and stones, chiefly on the
southern coast of England, though it has been seen in Scotland.
Our specimens were gathered at Weymouth by Mr.
Bryer and Mr. Pilkington. We have received others from the
harbour of Cadiz, where it is more plentiful than in England,
by favour of Don Simon de Roxas Clemente, a learned Spaniard
now travelling in the north of Africa in the dress and
character of a Moor.
Several fronds grow from one central root, spreading circularly,
of a kidney shape, undivided or lobed, of a membranous
texture and light greenish brown colour. The seeds are
thickly lodged in several brown arched lines, which run quite
across each frond, and give the whole an elegantly striped appearance,
justly compared to the feather of a turkey-cock.
Mr. Ellis has published a figure and description of this
plant in his work on Corallines, not as believing it one of that
tribe, but to shew its appearance under a microscope. His
figure accords with what Mr. J . Sowerby has observed.