140 
CRYPTOGAMIA. ALGAS. Byssus. 
and consists of innumerable minute globules, nearly of a size. Examined 
by a high magnifier each globule seems to be composed of simple, cylin¬ 
drical, jointed, short filaments, spreading in every direction, and spring¬ 
ing from a solid centre. 
Little Hedgehog Conferva. E.Bot. E.) 
C. jEgagro'pila. Very much branched: branches extremely crowded, 
proceeding from a centre, and forming a round ball. 
(E. Bot. 1377— Dillw. 87. E.) 
Green: of the size of a walnut, exactly spherical, loose, not adhering to 
stones. Threads knotted, green, the knots brown, growing as close as 
the balls found in the stomachs of animals,* no solid body in the centre 
from whence they might be supposed to shoot. Linn. Bright green, in 
balls of an irregular spherical figure, from one and a half to three inches 
diameter, and from their external to the internal surface about a quarter 
of an inch, most compact nearest the surface, covered on the outside 
with short villi. Watson in Phil. Trans, vol. 47. p. 499. (Sometimes 
twice the size of a cricket ball: internally hollow; consisting of innume¬ 
rable green pellucidjomh? and filaments, repeatedly branched and firmly 
entangled together. E. Bot. 
Globe Conferva. Moor Balls. E.) In mountainous lakes. On the large 
lake on Wallingfen Moor, twelve miles west of Hull, the water of which 
is sometimes rendered a little brackish at high tides from the Humber 
with which it communicates. In many places the bottom of the lake is 
covered with these balls like a pavement, and many are left dry on the 
shores every summer. Mr. Dixon in Phil. Trans, ib. (Here it was 
originally discovered and collected in large quantities, by Mr. Thomas 
Knowlton, gardener to the Earl of Burlington, at Lanesborough, about 
the year 1728. The above-mentioned lake has since been drained, and 
this curious natural production has probably disappeared. E.) In a 
large pool called the White Sicli, on a common between ShifFnal and 
Newport, Shropshire. (Culmere, Shropshire; and the lakes of North 
Wales. E.) 
(C. veluti'na. Hair-like, green ; threads branched ; joints long. 
Dillw. 77— E. Bot. 1656—Mich. 89. 5—Dill 1. 14. 
Spread upon the ground like a fine green carpet. Consists of filaments so 
fine as not to be distinguished by the naked eye, crowded and matted 
together, branched and not branched, extremely short, but mostly 
upright like the pile of velvet. Dill. 
Green Carpet Conferva. C. velutina,. E. Bot. Agard. Dillw. Hook. 
Bt/ssus velutina. Lightf. With, to Ed. 7. Damp, clayey banks, sides of 
ponds, rivers, &c. E.) 
BYS'SUS. f Substance, like fine down or velvet, simple 
or feathered. 
(1) Thread-like. 
B. flos-aVjuje. Threads feathered, floating upon water. 
In the middle of summer it rises and mixes with the water, which in con¬ 
sequence becomes greenish, turbid, and hardly drinkable for several days. 
* (Hence the specific name, in reference to those found in the stomachs of goats. E.) 
j* (Derived from j6 utrerog, according to Pliny, meaning a kind of fine flax, which these 
plants resemble in their general appearance. E.) 
