Sek. MELANOSPERME^. (181) Fam. ECTOCARPEJ; 



ECTOCARPUS DISTORTUS.— e«m. 



Gen. Char. — "Frond capillary, jointed, olive or brown, flaccid, single-tubed. Fruit, 

 either spherical, elliptical, or lanceolate utricles (or spores), borne (externally) 

 on the ramuli, or imbedded in their substance." Name from e/crbs, "external,"' 

 and Kapirhs, "fruit." A name equally applicable to many other genera, and 

 unfortunately only to a few of the species in the present. 



EcTOCARPUs cUstortus. — Filaments excessively tufted and matted 

 together, much branched in a subdichotomous or alternate manner ; 

 branches curved, patent ; ramuli patent, short, irregularly scattered ; 

 " spores obovate, sessile, or subsessile." — Fhi/c. Brit. 



ECTOCAEPUS distortus. — Carni. Alg. Appin. MSS. cum ic. ; Ilarv. in Book. Br. Fl. 

 vol. ii. p. 326; Harv. P. B. plate 329; Haw. Man. p. 60; Haw. 

 Syn. p. 57 ; Atlas, plate 20, fig. 87 ; /. G. Agardh, Sp. Gen. Alg, 

 vol. i. p. 24. 



Hab. — Parasitical on the leaves of Zostera marina. Annual. Summer and autumn. 

 Appin {Capt. Carmichael, 1824 ; JRev. Dr. Landshorough, 1850). 



Geogr. Dist. • ? 



Description. — Filaments much tufted, two to fom: inches or more 

 in length, very densely and intricately interwoven into a close spongy 

 mass, much branched in a very irregidar manner, between dichotomous, 

 alternate, and" secund ; branches very patent, rather short, curved, bent 

 and contorted in every possible variety of form and angle ; ramuli rather 

 few, short, simple, and spine-like, of very unequal length, but all very 

 patent, sometimes a mere knob, at other times a line or more in length, 

 slightly tapering towards the apices, which are rounded and somewhat 

 obtuse. Ai'ticulations about as long as broad, cylindrical, scarcely con- 

 tracted at the dissejiiments ; nearly filled with dark brown endochrome. 

 Substance rather rigid and brittle, scarcely adhering to paper in drying. 

 Colour, when old at least, a dark umber brown. Fructification we have 

 not seen ; it is described in Phjc. Brit, as " obovate, sessile, or sub- 

 sessile." 



This curious species was sent to us in the autumn of the present year 

 (1859), from the Moray Frith, where it was picked up by Mr. Hugh Ross, 

 pupil teacher, a young and enthusiastic obsei-ver of Campbelton. It was 

 growing on the " Skales purse," which it entirely covered on that side 

 which had been uppermost. Since then, in examining a quantity of sea- 



