Ser. MELANOSrEIlMEJi. (183.) Fam. ECTOCARPEyE. 



ECTOCAEPUS LANDSBURGIL— J7a7T. 



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

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

 ontheramuli, or imbedded in their substance." Name from iKrhs, "external," 

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

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



EcTOCAEPUS Landsburgii. — "Filaments dark brown, tenacious, intri- 

 cate, much branched ; branches irregularly forked, divaricated, zigzag, 

 bristling with numerous short, spine-like, horizontal ramuli ; articula- 

 tions shorter than broad, the endochrome filling the cell, and recovering 

 its shape on being moistened after having been dried." — Phyc. Brit. 



EoTOOARPUS Landsburgii. — Earv. P. B. plate 233 ; Harv. Man. p. 60 ; Eai-v. 

 Syn. p. 57 ; Atlas, plate 20, fig. 88 ; Harv. N. B. A. part 1, p. 143. 



Hab. — Dredged in deep water, in land-locked bays. Bare. Annual. Summer. 

 Lamlash, Isle of Arran {Rev, Z>. Landshorough) ; Roundstone Bay, Galway {Dr. Harvey). 



Geogr. Dist. — Shores of Scotland and Ireland ; Halifax Bay; Nova Scotia. 



Description. — " Filaments capillary, one or two inches in length, 

 densely entangled in small tufts or rolled together in masses, iixegularly 

 much branched, of about the same diameter from the base to the apex ; 

 branches spreading at wide angles, dichotomous or alternate, the lesser 

 divisions very patent, horizontal or recurved ; ramuli short, spine-like, 

 horizontal, simple or forked, not half a line in length, now thinly, now 

 thickly scattered over the branches, rarely opposite. Articidations 

 shorter than broad, filled by a coloiu"ed bag ; the dissepiments and 

 border veiy narrow. Substance tenacious and membranous, not closely 

 adhering to paper, and not affected by long steeping in fresh water, 

 Colom*, a dark brown." — Phyc. Brit. 



We are unable to form any opinion as to the claims of this foim to 

 specific distinction. We have received specimens from Dr. Dickie and 

 others, which appear to be con'ectly named, yet we have not the least 

 hesitation in saying, that had we examined these without names, wo 

 would at once have set them down as E. distortiis, and have considered 

 the difference in the contained thread of endochrome as only the effect 

 of age or of drying. Our specimens of E. distorttis, also from the Moray 

 Frith, referred to under that species, we would have refciTcd without 



