[ 1929 ]
if b
CONFERVA ærea.
Unequal-jointed Verdigrise 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 unbranched, straight,
somewhat rigid. Joints very unequal, scarcely so
long as broad; their partitions pellucid and constricted.
Syn. Conferva asrea. Dillw. Conf. t. 80 .
W E are obliged to Mr. Turner and Mr. W . J. Hooker for
specimens of thisT Conferva, collected on the Norfolk coast.
Mr. Dillwyn alone has hitherto described it as a British
species.
The colour is a bright green with a cast of verdigrise. The
filaments grow in large patches on wooden posts or rails in the
sea, and are from 3 to 15 inches long, straight, brittle and
somewhat rigid, about the size of coarse thread ; Mr. Dillwyn
has seen them as thick as a crow’s quill. They are always
tinbranched. The joints are seldom or never so long as they
are broad, and, as Mr. Dillwyn well observes, “ two together
often appear, whose united length is precisely the same as
that of one of the others, as if they had originally formed only
a single joint.” The partitions are white and pellucid, and
each being a little contracted, the whole frond acquires thence
a slightly beaded appearance. Immediately after gathering,
this white transparency extends all round each joint.