CRYPTOGAMIA. ALGAL Conferva. 
117 
Forked Conferva. E.) Below Charlton, Kent, in the marsh ditches near 
the Thames. Merr. 28 . Salt water ditches between Greenwich and Wool¬ 
wich. Dill. Near Gravesend. Huds. (Ditches near Yarmouth. Mr. D. 
Turner. E.) P. Jan.—Dec. Dill.* 
C. bullo'sa. Threads matted together, inclosing air bubbles. 
Bill 3. 11. 
Threads slender, three inches to a foot or more in length, green, or dull 
yellowish green, soft, rather silky, sending out from the sides other finer 
and shorter threads. Dill.t 
(Green Densely-matted Conferva. E.) Ditches, pools, and the sides of 
cisterns. Spring, summer, and autumn, and in cisterns all the year. Dill. In 
salt marsh pools at Weymouth. Mr. Stackhouse. A. March—June. Huds. 
C. canalicula'ris. Threads more branched towards the base; 
branches long. 
Bill 4. 15. 
Densely crowded, deep green, soft and spongy or velvety to the touch. 
Threads and branches slender, very much branched downwards, but little 
so towards the ends, one to two inches high; soft and herbaceous when 
taken out of the water, but when dry it acquires an almost stony hard¬ 
ness, from the mud adhering to it. Dill. 
(Channelled Conferva. Vaucheria ccespitosa. Agard. Hook. E.) Clear 
brooks and mill-pond troughs. Dill. P. Jan.—Dec. 
C. amphibia. Threads when dry uniting into stiff sharp points: 
(capsules sessile. Dillw. 
Billie. 41. E.)— Bill 4. IT— -(Billie. 49. E.) 
Fibres innumerable, densely matted together, extremely fine, so that it is 
difficult to say whether it be branched or not: green. In streams it 
grows two or three inches long, and thrown on the shore the threads 
unite in bundles at the top, and adhere so as to have a thorn-like appear¬ 
ance. In other situations it forms a kind of skin on the ground. Dill. 
(Amphibious Conferva. C. vesicata. Dillw. C . amphibia . Lightf. 
Dillw. Vaucheria ornithocephala. Agard. Hook. E.) Banks of rivers, 
ditches, damp walls, autumn and winter; and in summer in moist 
shady places. P. Jan.—Dec. 
C. ri'gida. Threads very much branched, rather stiff; lesser branches 
alternate, very short. 
Bill. 4. 16. 
Several stems arise from one common base, fixed to a stone. Dull green, 
tending to brownish: moderately stiff, somewhat hairy. Stems branched 
on every side, and divided, particularly towards the ends, into fine fibres. 
Dill. 
(Rigid Fresh-water! Conferva. E.) Clear water and where the stream 
is most rapid. In a stream on Hounslow Heath, and in the Lug near 
Mortimer's Cross, Herefordshire. Dill. P. Jan.—Oct. 
* (It is supposed to possess vermifuge qualities ; such as have rendered celebrated 
the Coralline of Corsica, Conferva helminthortos of Schv/endimann. E.) 
+ It has been conjectured that these globules are in fact reservoirs of oxygen gas, 
elaborated in the pores of apparently insignificant, but hence essentially useful plants ; 
and that the purer air thus evolved may not only yield a pabulum vitae to innumerable 
aquatic animalcules, but, in a degree, counteract the baleful influence of azote, often too 
copiously generated in similar situations. Contemplating this phenomenon, the lamented 
Mr. Oade Roberts observes, “ so wonderfully has the Creator combined intrinsic and 
reciprocal subservience, in every department of a universe stupendously vast and curiously 
minute! ” E.) 
