[ 1654 ]
CONFERVA rivularis.
L on g R iv e r Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Algae.
Gen. Char. Seeds produced in round, solitary, closed
tubercles, projecting from the frond, but united
with it.
Spec. Char. Darkish green. Filaments unbranched,
very long, slender, clustered and twisted. Joints
even, rather longer than broad.
Syn. Conferva rivularis. Linn. Sp. PI. 1633. Huds.
591. With. v. 4. 127. Hull. 330. Relh. 483.
-Abbot. 274. Dillw, Conf. t. 39.
C. funiformis. Roth. Catal. v. 1. 169,
C. fluviatilis sericea vulgaris et fluitans. Dill.
Muse. 12. t. 2. ƒ. 1.
G. Plinii. Rail Syn. 58.
T h e r e can be no doubt of this being what Dillenius in-,
tended in the place above quoted, though he might gather and
confound other things with i t ; see Mr. Turner’s remarks in
Tr. o fL . Soc. v. 7 ; also Mr. Dillwyn’s in his instructive work.
This species has been called Crow Silk, for what reason we
know not. It grows in slow streams, and its filaments, extended
to the length of 2 or 3 feet, or more, undulating with
the current and more or less twisted by its action, are familiar
to most observers. The colour is an uniform rather dull or
darkish green, brighter in the young plant. The filaments
are perfectly simple, of an uniform thickness throughout,
though differing greatly from each other, some being about
the 900th part of an inch, others not above the 1800th. The
joints are not very conspicuous, about half as long again as
they are broad, and the colouring matter is pretty equally diffused.
When dry the joints become more visible, and the
colour of the whole pale and whitish, with the roughish aspect
of cotton rather than the gloss of silk.
The plant described under this name by M. Vaucher in his
elaborate Histoire des Conferves d’eau douce, 12 9 . t. 14. f . 1,
seems to differ essentially from ours, and we are not without
suspicion that more than 2 or 3 long floating Confervas maybe
confounded together by botanists as C. rivularis.
0 c r^o & J )lb 2 £ s J i3 ty J it-i S ow rhy L ondon..