The Collaborative International Dictionary
Conferva \Con*fer"va\, n.; pl. Conferv[ae]. [L., a kind of water plant. See Comfrey.] (Bot.) Any unbranched, slender, green plant of the fresh-water algae. The word is frequently used in a wider sense.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of conferva English)
WordNet
See conferva
n. any of various algae of the genus Tribonema; algae with branching filaments that form scum in still or stagnant fresh water
[also: confervae (pl)]
Usage examples of "confervae".
Paul's Rocks, non-volcanic -- Singular Incrustations -- Insects the first Colonists of Islands -- Fernando Noronha -- Bahia -- Burnished Rocks -- Habits of a Diodon -- Pelagic Confervae and Infusoria -- Causes of discoloured Sea.
These are minute cylindrical confervae, in bundles or rafts of from twenty to sixty in each.
I confess, however, there is a very great difficulty in imagining any one spot to be the birthplace of the millions of millions of animalcula and confervae: for whence come the germs at such points?
The confervae on the stones, the growths beneath at the bottom waving a little as the water swirls like minute seaweeds--these are brown and green and somewhat reddish too.
The inveterate antagonism of these black precipices to all strugglers for life is in no way more forcibly suggested than by the paucity of tufts of grass, lichens, or confervae on their outermost ledges.