Ser. MELANOSPERMEiE. ( 199 ) Fam. ECTOCAItPE^. 



MYEIOTPJCHIA FILIFOKMIS.— JTr^r 



Gen. Char.- — "Filaments capillary, flaccid, jointed (simple), besot Nvitli quadrlfarious, 

 simple, spine-like ramuli, clotlied with byssoid fibres. Fructification : elliptic 

 utricles (or spores ?), containing a dark-coloured sporaceous mass." Name from 

 fivpios, "a thousand," and 0/)i|, "a hair." — Phyc, Brit. 



Myrioteichia Miformis. — " Stem filiform, slender, often flexuous or 

 curled, beset at irregular intervals with oblong clusters of short, papili- 

 form I'amuli." — Phyc. Brit. 



Mykiotrichia filiformis. — Harv. P. B. plate 156 ; Harv. Man. p. 03 ; Harv. Syn. 

 p. 61 ; Atlas, plate 22, fig. 9S ; Wyatt, Alg. Damn. No. 213 ; /. G. 

 Agardh, Sjo. Gen. Alg. vol. i. p. 14, 



Hab. — Yaxaziiicsl on Chorda lomentaria. Annual. Summer. Not uncommon. 



Cteogr. Dist. — British Islands. 



Description. — Fronds tufted, simple, filiform, the tufts often con- 

 fluent, half an inch to an inch or more in length, veiy slender, capilla- 

 ceous, cylindrical, articulated ; the articulations shorter than their 

 diameter, having here and there short cylindrical portions, somewhat 

 thicker than the stem itself, the thickened jjortion consisting of numerous 

 short, close-set, papiliform, articulated ramuli, which, as well as the 

 stem itself, are covered with long, slender, hyaline, articulated filaments, 

 with oblong joints, three to five times longer than their diameters. 

 Fructification : spherical, sessile spores, scattered sparingly over the main 

 filament. Svibstance flaccid, closely adhering to paper. Colour, a pale 

 olive green, changing to a yellowish brown. 



The present is understood to be the more common species of this 

 curious genus, but from its minute and inconspicuous ramuli, and the 

 consequent slender and uniformly filiform appearance of the stems, it 

 is still more likely to be overlooked or mistaken for some incipient form 

 of other Alga;, or even for the byssoid filaments so frequent on all Algae. 



It is, perhaps, also much less restricted to the fronds of Chorda lomen- 

 taria than what was supposed, as our specimens are attached to a frond 

 of Laminaria. They are from Donegal. 



