ECTOCARPACE^. 81 



Ectocarpus fenestratus. 'Windowed Ectocarpus. 



Tufts small, pale green. Threads very slender, not much 

 branched. Pods on short stalks, oblong, when ripe dark- 

 coloured and chequered, like the lattice of a window. 



Ectocarpus fasciculatus. Fasciculate Ectocarpus. 



Tufts dense, olive-coloured. Main threads not much di- 

 vided ; branchlets in twig-like bunches. Pods without 

 stalks, awl-shaped, set close together. 



Ectocarpus Hincksise. Miss Hincks's Ectocarpus. 



Tufts parasitical on Laminaria bulbosa, dark olive. 

 Threads distantly branched, somewhat rigid ; branches 

 furnished on one side with curved, comb-like branchlets. 

 Pods conical, without stems, forming the teeth of the comb- 

 like branchlets. 



This species is unhappily as rare as it is interesting 

 and beautiful. 



Ectocarpus tomentosus. Woolly Ectocarpus. 



Tufts parasitical on Fuel and other large sea-weeds, 

 commonly of a yellow-brown colour. Threads slender, 

 irregularly branched, matted together into a spongy, cord- 

 like mass of considerable length. Pods linear- oblong, on 

 short stalks. 



This species is very common, and its characters are 

 better marked than those of any other British Ectocar- 

 pus. It usually attaches its matted masses of threads 

 to the tips of the fronds of some Fucus or Himanthalicz, 

 and either floats lazily on the surface of a tide-pool, or 

 hangs in ugly streaks among the rocks. 



