Ser. CHLOROSPERME®. Fam. Siphonee. 
Prats CCCXXI. 
VAUCHERIA VELUTINA, 4%. 
Gen. Cuar. Fronds aggregated, tubular, continuous, capillary, coloured 
by an internal, green, pulverulent mass. Fructification, dark green, 
_homogeneous sporangia (coniocyste), attached to the frond.—Grev. 
Vaucnerta (De C.),—in honour of M. Vaucher, a distinguished 
Swiss writer upon fresh-water Conferva, &c. 
VaucueErta velutina ; filaments creeping ; branches erect, fastigiate, 
woven into a velvety stratum; sporangia solitary, globose, lateral, 
on short stalks. 
VaucHERTA velutina, 4g. Syst. p.312. Hook. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 319. Harv. 
Man, ed. 1. p. 147. ed. 2. p.196. Kiitz. Syst. Alg. p. 487. 
Has. On the muddy sea-shore, and on mud-covered rocks, between tide- 
marks, generally above half-tide level. Annual. Spring and summer. 
Appin, Capt. Carmichael. Miltown Malbay; Ross Begh; Cushendall, 
and several other places on the Irish coast, W.H. H. (Probably all 
round the coast.) 
Groer. Distr. Shores of Europe. 
Descr. This plant forms widely spreading, velvety patches, from a few inches 
to several feet in diameter, and from a quarter of an inch to an inch in 
thickness. The lower part of the mass consists of innumerable, irregularly 
branching, interwoven, capillary fronds, of a tough membranous con- 
sistence ; the larger portion of them being usually dead, with a very offen- 
sive odour. The upper stratum of filaments alone exhibits marks of vege- 
tation. The greater portion of each filament is decumbent; but here and 
there it throws up erect, short branches of nearly equal length, or standing 
at equal height, and these, closely placed together though originating in 
separate prostrate threads, from the pile of the velvet-lke patch. The 
lower portions of the tubular filamentous frond are colourless and empty— 
the upper, and especially the erect branches contain a bright green granular 
fluid. Sporangia globose, very dark green with a pellucid border; each 
borne at or near the apex of a’ short branchlet. Colour of the stratum a 
dark, shining green, when free from mud, which frequently nearly chokes 
the plant. 
PARR RR ees 
The specimen here figured was gathered at Cushendall, on 
the Antrim coast, where the plant grows in scattered patches, 
over rocks slightly coated with mud; and covered by every tide. 
It was in fructification in August, but appeared to be rather past 
VOL. III. Y 
