it mud be attributed to age. It is often much infefled by polypi. Profeflbr 

 Mertens is of opinion that this is the plant intended by Dillenius, in his Hift. 

 Mufc. t. 3. f. 11. and named C. bullofa by fubfequent authors, but the fpecimen 

 in Dillenius's Herbarum is certainly another fpecies, and I feel no hefitation in 

 adopting D. Turner's opinion, that many of thofe plants which grow fufficiently 

 entangled together to retain bubbles of air, and are thereby floated on the furface 

 of the water, have been confounded together by all authors under that name, and 

 confequently that the Conferva; bullofte are a family, and not a fpecies of this tribe. 



After being dried, the Conferva; bullofa: have been ufed as wadding for fluffing 

 garments, and wove into coarfe houfehold linen. Weis in his Plants Cryptoga- 

 mics Flora; Gottingenfis, page 23, relates that formerly the river Unftrut, after 

 inundating a large tract of country in Upper Saxony, on again retiring into its 

 proper channel, left a great quantity of C. bullofa, which, having been gathered 

 and dried by the inhabitants, was ufed by them for fluffing their garments, but 

 that it occafioned violent pains in their limbs. It is alfo ufed for making coarfe 

 paper. 



A. C. fra£ta, magnified 3. 



B. Ditto i> 



