2879.
CONFERVA Brownii.
Brown’s Conferva.
CRYPTOGAMIJ Al<jae.
Gen. Char. Filaments simple or branched, free, not
connected by transverse tubes; articulations containing
a granular mass.
Spec. Char. Filaments forming dense cushion-like
tufts, erect, rigid, flexuous, elastic, branched ;
branches long, subsimple, subsecund; axils
acute ; articulations 3-7 times longer than broad,
the lower ones thickened upwards, the upper cylindrical.
Syn. Conferva Brownii. Dillw. ConJ. Syn. 58. supp.
t. D. Agardh Syst. Alg. 105. Engl. FI. v. 5.
pt. 2. 355. Wyatt Alg. Danm. no. 225. Harv.
Man. Brit. Alg. 134.
F i r s ' r discovered by Mr. R. Brown, in a cave near Dun-
rea, in the north of Ireland. It has since occurred near
Black Castle, Wicklow; and Mr. Ralfs, from whom we received
our specimens, has found it on the Cornwall coast,
where it is in perfection in winter. It forms very dense, rigid,
dark green tufts, in caves where it is exposed to the dripping
of fresh water and the occasional overflow of the sea. Filaments
springing from a creeping fibrous base, erect, about
one inch high, though sometimes much shorter; rigid and
elastic, slightly branched alternately, many of the subdivisions
being secund, or, if not springing from the same side of the
filaments, leaning one way. Articulations variable in length,
3-7 times as long as broad, swelling upwards; those which
are terminal being nearly cylindrical.
Compared by Mr. Harvey to Conferva wgagropila. The
peculiar rigid character quite disappears when the plant is
dry, and the colour, which, in the spongy mass saturated
with water, is dark green, becomes far paler.—M. J. B.