Ser. MELANOSPERME.E. (191) Fam. ECTOCARPEiE. 



Plate CLXXXI. 

 ECTOCAKPUS SPH.EPOPHORUS.— CV/n». 



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

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

 on the ramuli, or imbedded in the substance." Name from eKrhs, "external," 

 and Kap-rrhs, "fruit." A name equally applicable to many other genera, and 

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



EcTOCARPUs sp1icero2:>horus. — Fronds densely tufted, very slender, and 

 much branched ; lower branches mostly quaternate, iipper opposite ; 

 " spores globose, sessile, either opposite to each other or to a branchlet." 



EcTOCARPUS sphcBropliorus. — Carm.Alg. Appin. ined.; Wijatt, AJg. Damn. No. 173; 

 Harv. in Hooh. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 326 ; Harv. in Mach. Fl. Bib. part 3, 

 p. 182; Harv. P. B. plate 126 ; Harv. Man. p. 61 ; Harv. Syn. p. 59 ; 

 Atlas, plate 20, fig. 89; /. G. Agardh, Sp. Gen. Alg. vol. i. p. 17. 



EcTOCARPUS hrachiatus. — Ag. Sjy. AJg. vol. ii. p. 42. 



Hab, — Parasitical on the smaller Algse, between tide-marks. Annual. Summer. Not 

 common, but found at intervals from Land's End to Orkney. 



Geoge. Dist. — British Islands. 



Description. — Fronds densely tufted, but not much entangled, very 

 slender, very much branched ; branches subpatent, or erecto-patent, at 

 first opposite, at length mostly quaternate below or about the middle, 

 , opposite upwards, with rather long slender pinnules, which are subulate, 

 tapering to a more or less acute point ; the lower pinnules longest, 

 becoming uniformly shorter upwards. Articulations about as long as 

 their diameter, somewhat inflated in the middle, and contracted at the 

 dissepiments. Substance soft, and very closely adhering to the paper 

 in drying. Colour, when young, a fine greenish olive, gradually changing 

 to a yellowish brown. Fructification: sessile, spherical caj)sules, pro- 

 duced by the metamorphosis of the ultimate ramuli, opposite when both 

 are so changed, and opposite a ramulus when only one is so. Small, 

 with a rather thick pellucid limbus. 



This pretty little species is apparently not unfrequent on many parts 

 of the coast ; but it appears to be not very abundant anywhere. 



On the east coast, it is not imfrequent growing parasitical on the 

 smaller Algee, such as Rhodomela suhfusca, Polyswhonia nigrescens, kc, 



