17 s SYNOPSIS OF BRITISH SEAWEEDS. 



324. ter*K(Thepal ; rod Bcutate; filaments eloii- 



u setaceous, tufted, Btraight, harsh, brittle, yellow-gr 



art irul.-tt ions aboul as Long as broad, Diliw. Conf. t. 90. 

 (Atlas, PL IAIX. Eg. 326, a.) 

 Conferva antennina, Bory. 



< >n sand-covered rocks, between tide-marks. 

 Thi> is one of the many species of Conferva first brought 

 to the notice of botanists in the excellent monograph of 

 Diilwyn, where a correct figure is given of it. Jt appears 

 [generally diffused throughout the Atlantic, extending 

 even within the tropics. It is always a more tufted plant 

 than C. Melagoniwm, paler in colour, of scarcely half the 

 diameter, and, though harsh, far less rigid and quite un- 

 able to support itself when removed from the water. 



325. collabens (The collapsing Conferva) ; filament? elongated, 

 Btraight, tufted, very thick (but of various diameters), gela- 

 tinou> and flaccid, of a splendid seruginous -green colour; 

 articulations from once to once and a half as long as broad, 

 filled with a dense granular mass, Ag. Syst. Alg. p. 102. 

 (Atlas, PL LXIX. Fig. 327.) 



Conferva avrea, var., Dilhv. Hormotrichum collabens, A7-. 

 J I ah. At Yarmouth, on a floating piece of deal. 



Diilwyn notices this species, making it a variety of his 

 C. area, in the following words : — " This curious variety, 

 which was found on the Yarmouth beach by Sir W. J. 

 Hooker, in the spring of 1808, attached to a piece of deal. 

 differs so extraordinarily from the common appearance of 

 C. area, that, except under a microscope, nobody would 

 suspect them of being the same. It grew in a very large 

 tuft, and its filaments were remarkably soft, tender, slip- 

 pery, and glossy, so as to float with the slightest agitation 

 of the water, and adhere closely to paper and glass in dry- 

 ing." To this I have only to add that the figure has been 

 drawn from the original specimen, and that no one has 

 since met with a similar one in this country. Kutzing 

 however states that he has received it from the north of 

 Germany. The filaments differ from each other very ex- 

 traordinarily in diameter, so that one might suppose there 

 were half-a-dozen different species under the microscope 

 her. The specific character least variable seems to 

 be the extreme lubricity and softness. 



326. bangioides ( The Bangia-like Conferva) ; filaments at- 

 tached, elongated, very -lender, soft and lubricous, v 



