Ser. CHLOROSPERMEX. Fam. Confervee. 
Puate XCIX. 2A. 
CONFERVA MELAGONIUM, eb. et Mohr. 
Gen. Cuar. Filaments green, joimted, attached or floating, unbranched. 
Fruit, aggregated granules or zoospores, contained in the joints, having 
at some period, a proper ciliary motion. Conrerva (P/in.)—from 
conferruminare, to consolidate ; because some of the species were used 
by the ancients in cases of fractured bones. 
Conrerva Melagonium ; root scutate, filaments elongated, robust, scattered 
or slightly tufted, erect, stiff and wiry, dark-green ; joints twice as 
long as broad. 
ConFerva Melagonium, Wed. et Mohr. It. Suec. p. 194. t. 3. f. 2. a,b. Roth, 
Cat. Bot. vol. iii. p. 254. Dillw. Int. p. 48. Suppl. t. B. Ag. Syn. 
p. 84. Lyngb. Hyd. Dan. p. 148. t.51. Ag. Syst. p.99. Harv. in Hook. 
Br, Fl. vol. ii. p. 354. Harv. in Mack. Fl. Hid. part 3. p. 226. Harv. 
Man. p.130. Wyatt, Alg. Danm. no. 221. Kitz. Phyc. Gen. p. 260. 
Has. On the rocky bottoms of deep tide pools, near low-water mark. 
Perennial. Found on many parts of the British coasts, from Orkney 
to Cornwall, and on all the coasts of Ireland ; but nowhere very abun- 
dant. Jersey, Miss White. 
Geoer. Distr. Throughout the Northern and German Ocean. Iceland. Green- 
land. Shores of North America; Boston Bay, Dr. 4. Gray. 
Descr. Root scutate. Filaments five to twelve inches long or more, twice or 
thrice as thick as hog’s bristles, erect, stiff, and very tough, straight, of 
equal diameter throughout, rarely tufted, generally growing in a scattered 
manner, or in small clusters of four or five, of a very dark green colour. 
Articulations, except the basal one, which is short, about twice as long as 
broad, filled with a dark green mass, which at length separates mto two 
portions. Dissepiments contracted, very narrow, pellucid. 
Atlantic, from the shores of Greenland to those of Britain, and 
extends along the shores of North America, as far as Boston, and 
perhaps further southward. It is abundantly distinguished from 
all British species by the great diameter and rigidity of its fila- 
ments, which stand erect, if the water be removed from them ; 
but it seldom grows in places where it is left exposed on the 
recess of the tide. Its nearest affinity is with C. erea, which I 
have therefore represented on the same plate; but it is a much 
more rigid plant. 
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