CONFERVA mirabilis.
Cohering Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga:.
Gen. Char. 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 . Pale olive. Filaments cylindrical, even,
cohering and divaricated as if branched. Joints rather
broader than long.
S y n . Conferva mirabilis. Dillw. Conf. t. 9 6 . Syn. n. 14.
COLLECTED in Bantry bay, Ireland, by Miss Hutchins,
who sent.it to Mr. Turner. Our specimens are parasitical on
other submarine plants, and rather olive than blueish green.
They consist of cylindrical even filaments, making dense tufts
half an inch high, remarkable for cohering here and there,
but without any interbranching, or communication of their
internal parts. After they have thus united, they immediately
divaricate, and then join other filaments, from which they
again spread as before. The joints are scarcely so long a3
broad, and are quite even. Mr. J. D. Sowerby has discovered
an external, somewhat horny, coat or sheath, enveloping the
whole plant; from which, when cut transversely, a pellucid,
pale reddish, more distinctly jointed, internal filament protrudes
gradually, and returns again in a few minutes. This
circumstance makes us waver respecting Mr. Dillwyn’s plant,
though verified to us by good authority, as it could hardly
have escaped that able observer. Another doubt arises’'from
his being a fresh-water species, and described of a blueish
green colour.
2 2 H)