169 

 ECTOCAEPUS TESSELLATUS. (HAYDEN.) 



SPECIFIC CHAEACTEKS. 



Dksceiption of Plate. — No. 1. is a Drawing of the Plant as it appears when laid upon 

 ■ paper. Nos. 2 and 3, branches and silicules of the same, more or less magnified. In Figure 3, 

 one of the Silicules appears to have burst at the end, and to have discharged its contents. 



Filaments somewhat tufted, from two to four inches long, very light and 

 feathery as they float in the sea, not much branched, as compared with other 

 species of JSdocarpus, but bearing a remarkable resemblance to E. fasciculatus, 

 in having short multifid ramuli crowded together into little apparent bundles 

 throughout the whole length of each branch. Branching somewhat irregular, 

 between opposite and alternate, the main branches are rnoHtlij opposite, while 

 the penultimate are very irregular, and at their points are often hooked 

 backward in a scorpioid manner. The ramuli are secund, closely set, a 

 ramulus rising from almost every joint of the penultimate branchlet. The 

 Articulations are about as long as broad, sometimes rather less. The Silicules, 

 or Propagula (pod-like fruit) are abundantly scattered j sessile, on the upper 

 surface of the penultimate ramuli, varying in shape from oval to elliptical, 

 and sometimes inclining to reniform, regularly tessellated with minute dark 

 squares, which are clearly defined under a glass ,of moderate power by pellucid 

 lines, that intersect each other at right angles. This characteristic Silicule 

 clearly stamping the plant as new to British Algology, has enabled us to 

 append the above speciSc designation. Colour, a clear olive. Substance, soft, 

 closely adhering to paper. 



This plant, besides being new to the British list, has the merit of being 

 tolerably abundant in the place where it was found in July, 1851, by the 

 Rev. F. W. Hayden, of Skelton, near York. Whoever walks to the farthest 

 point of Filey Bridge, Yorkshire, at low water, will there tread upon E. tessellatus 

 at almost every step; it will be found growing on the rock, on shells, and 

 completely clothing the fronds of Ilimanthalia lorea. So much does it 

 resemble E. fasciculatus in its outward form, that Dr. Harvey, Author of the 

 ''Phycologia Britannica," remarks to Sir. Hayden, "It is to the ^naked eye so 

 like E. fasciculatus, that until I had put it under the glass, I thought it must 

 be that species." 



LOCAL JOTTINGS. 

 DORCHESTER— DORSETSHIIIE. 



BY .J. GARLAND, ESQ. 



Believing every fact in Natural History, however slight, to be of importance, 

 and wishing to compare arrivals and departures of migratory birds, notes of 

 particular habitats, etc., with the observations of others on the same subject, 

 I purpose to string together a few memoranda with that view from time to time, 



VOL. I. z 



