The Confarreeerr are for time most part green plants, but sometimes pink or brown. The fructification consists of a granular, coloured internal mass, which assumes various forms.
The genus Conferee, although still containing numerous species, has bent much reduced by the formation of new genera. It has however still an indefinite character, on itecount of the comparatively little at:talon which the order Alg« has received from botanists. The " are articulated, free, distinct, uniform, simple or branched' Fruit (?), an internal, coloured, granular mass (endlo chrome). Colour green, rarely purple or orange." The specie. of ('ortfrrrir are found wherever there is water. In running streams they attmh themselves to the stones at the bottom, and are so abundant frequently in stagnant ponds and pooh; as to conceal everything else. Some few of them are found in sea-water, and some on dry land. Some of the speolee have been found developing their peculiar forms under the influence of the ingredients of different mineral-spring-a ; and one, the Conferee tAermo/is, is only found in ther mal springs. Under favourable circumstances they sometimes go on developing to an immense extent in lakes or ponds in which they grJay. They are generally at first green, but as they ascend to the surface of the water, and are exposed to the air, they become whitish. The rapidity of the growth of these plants is sometimes very extraordinary, and lakes, and even the ocean itself, are covered for aevcral miles with floating masses of Conferee. several inches in depth. Of the various species of Confirm., the C. freeze, the C. erispata, and C. rirulari: are most abundant in this country. These plants are frequently called Crow-Silks, and in some parts of the country, when dried, they have been used fur the purpose of stuffiug becle, also as wadding fur stuffing garments. Dr. Lightfoot says he has seen at Edinburgh a kind of paper manufactured from the fibres of Conferee frarta. C. agagropda, Globe Crow-Silk, or Moor-Ball, is found with RI filaments rolled up into the form of a ball, so that it has the appearance of the balls of hair occasionally found in the stomachs of animals. It is an inhabitant of lakes, but is rarely found. It is not
fixed to anything, but floats about at the mercy of the waves. The balls vary in diameter from half en inch to four inchea.
Tho genus Hydrodiciyon has filaments which form a network with regular polygonal meshes, and viviparous articulations. There is but one species, the II. utriculatuni, Common Water-Net, which is a rare plant, and found only in ditches and pools in the middle and southern parts of England. It is a beautiful plant, forming it tubular net, which floats freely in the water. The meshes of the net-work are pentagonal or hexagonal, and vary iu diameter front half a line to half an inch, and the filaments from tho width of a human hair to that of the coarsest hog's-bristle.
The genus Jloug•otia, named after J. B. Mougeot, a German botanist, has articulated simple filaments, which are filially united by transverse tubes. The endoehrome is granular, at length forming roundish globules at the point of conjugation. This is one of the genera of confervoid plants whose filaments are said to unite before reproduction takes place. That this conjugation does take place previous to their granules possessing any reproductive power, in many of the species, there can be no doubt. But there are many specics of Conferra which belong to the conjugate group of genera, in which the phenomenon of coujugation does not take place previous to reproduction. These exceptions occur more particularly in the genus Zygnema. [ZYGNENIA.) Several species of Mougeotia are found in Great Britain ; the most common is the M. genujle.ra, which is abundant in pools and ditches, sometimes covering a space 30 or 40 feet in diameter, and being of a yellowish-green or dull yellow colour. The filaments are exceedingly fragile.
The genus Tyrularidea has simple filaments, inosculating by transverse tubes. The endochrome is in two roundish masses, which after conjugation unite to form a single globule. The species are found in ponds and ditches, mostly commencing their existence at the bottom of the water, and after n little time rising to the surface, where they form masses varying in size, of a yellowish and yellowish green colour.