CONFERVA VAGINATA. 



C fiiamentis ramofis cylindricis geniculatis ccsruleo viridefcauibus, 

 ramis vaginato-fafciculatis, articulis breviilimis 



Ofcillatoria vaginata. Vaucher Hiaoire des Confervcs d'eau douce. P. zoo. 

 tab. 15. f. 13. 



C. velutina 8. Roth. Cat. Bot. III. p. 200 ? 



Frequent during the Winter months on damp foil, by the fides of paths, &c. 

 about Weft Town, Suffex. Mr. Borrer. On Earth in the Flower-pots in a 

 Green-houfe at Norwich. Mr. Hooker. On Rocks and Stones in the Stream 

 which runs through the Wood at Penllergare, near Swanfea. 



I DISCOVERED thisfingular fpecies, growing mixed withC. decorticans,on 

 ftones which are occafionally overflowed by the ftream, and alfo entangled 

 among the filaments of C. fluviatilis, and the leaves of fontinalis antipyratica, 

 in the neighbourhood of Penllergare. My friends Mr. Hooker and Mr. Borrer 

 inform me, they alfo have found it in their refpedive neighbourhoods, but in 

 fituations fo diffimilar, that the plant feems to poflefs a perfed indifference with 

 refped to the foil or place in which it grows. 



Though Vaucher in the drawing of this plant has not availed himfelf of the 

 higher powers of the microfcope, his figure and defcription are too clear to 

 admit any doubt of its being his Ofcillatoria vaginata. It may be well to remark 

 that this author has formed limofa, fontinalis, and their congeners with fliort 

 annular joints into a feparate genus, which he has placed among the Tremellx, 

 and given it the name of Ofcillatoria, from a fpontaneous motion that he fup- 

 pofes them to poffefs. Of the nature of this motion I have already hazarded an 

 opinion in the defcription of C. limofa, and these plants, both in ftrudure and 



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