CONFERVACE.E. 145 



In ditches, pools, and other standing water. 



Articulations four to eight times as long as their diameter, usually 

 bright green. 



Plate LVI. Jig. 5. Part of branch of C. canalicularis X 100 diam. 



Cladophora aegagropila . (Linn.) Kutz. Tab. III. 



Dark green, threads rigid, very much branched, radiating 

 from a common centre, at length agglomerated into a very 

 dense, spongy globe. Ramuli erect, often quite obtuse, articula- 

 tions sometimes incrassated upwards, cell contents not arranged 

 in spirals, cell-membrane now and then thickened. 



SIZE. Branches -04-'07 diam, 2-4 or even 12 times as long. 



Rabh. Alg. Eur. iii., 343. 



Conferva wgagropila, Linn. Dillw. Conf,, t. 87. Purl. 

 Mid. Fl. iii., p. 175. Eng. Bot. ii., 1377 ; ii., 2496. Harv. 

 Man. 134. Eng. Fl. v., 357. Huds. Fl. Ang. ii., 604. Mack. 

 Hib. 228. Hull Br. FL 332. Hook. Fl. Scot, ii., 82. 

 With. Arr. iv., 141. 



Conferva globosa, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. xli., 498. 



Conferva cegagropilaris, Gray Arr. i., 308. 



Cladophora glomerata, Hass. Alg., p. 213 in part. 



var. Brownii (Dillw.). 

 Rabh. Alg. Eur. iii., 345. 



Conferva Brownii, Dillw. Conf. Syn., t. D. Harv. Man. 134. 

 Eng. Fl. v., 356. Wyatt Alg. Dan., No. 225. Mack. Fl. Hib. 

 228. Eng. Bot. 2879. 



" This singular vegetable production is a native of Alpine lakes in many 

 parts of Europe, often lying in great abundance at the bottom of the 

 water, and occasionally only rising and floating on the surface. It has 

 been found in the lakes of the north of England, Wales, Scotland, and 

 the district of Connemara in Ireland, but is generally esteemed rare. In 

 size it varies from that of a small pea to three or four inches in dia- 

 meter, and its form is always nearly spherical. Internally the larger 

 specimens are hollow, without any nucleus, and when examined their 

 substance is found to consist of innumerable green, pellucid, repeatedly 

 branched filaments, firmly entangled together. The vesicles, when the 

 plant is recently taken from the water, are turgid with fluid, and nearly 

 cylindrical, being slightly swollen towards the apex, where the granular 

 matter of the endochrome seems chiefly collected as a green opaque 

 mass ; in the terminal vesicle, however, of each branch it assumes often 

 a dark brown hue and more solidity, probably becoming the medium of 

 reproduction, and escaping in the form of sporules. The elasticity of 

 the balls may be estimated by the fact of their having been used as pen- 

 wipers in the north of England. Eng. Bot. 167. 



Plate LVI. fig. 6. Threads of C. cegugropila, nat. size. Fig. 7, portion 

 of upper branch X 100 diam. 



