C O N F E R V A tortuosa.
Cu rlin g Green Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alga;.
G en. Char. Seeds produced within the substance of
the capillary or jointed frond, or in closed tubercles
united with it.
Spec. Char. Green. Filaments simple, capillary, even,
rather rigid, curled, twisted and entangled. Joints
cylindrical, thrice as long as broad.
S y n . Conferva tortuosa. Dilliu. Conf. t. 4b. Syn. n. 29.
JVTr . BORRER gathered our specimens in ditches near Sel-
sey, Sussex, and sent them in a fresh state.
The filaments grow in an entangled rather elastic mass, of
a deep green, and are as fine as human hair, considerably tenacious,
even, remarkably curled and undulated, their joints
exactly cylindrical, at least three times as long as broad, the
.partitions soon becoming pellucid, and the green matter within
each joint shrinking into the middle as they dry.
We are not quite sure that lateral branches are not occasionally,
though very rarely, sent off by the filaments j but this is
foreign to the nature of the tribe to "which C. tortuosa appears,
by all other signs, to belong. We leave it to future observers
to correct or to confirm our remark.