Ser. Melanosperme/E. Fam. Ectocarpea, 



Plate CCLXXIII. 



ECTOCARPUS FASCICULATUS, Han. 



Gen. Char. Filaments capillary, jointed, olivaceous or brown, flaccid, 

 without longitudinal striae. Fruit either spherical or elliptical, ex- 

 ternal or imbedded spores ; or lanceolate, linear, or conical silicules 

 (pod-like bodies) ; or granular masses formed in consecutive cells of 

 the branches. Ectocarpus (Lyngb.), — from e/croy, Kapnos, external 

 fruit. 



Ectocarpus fasciculatus ; tufts olivaceous, dense ; main filaments not 

 much divided ; the branches distant, set throughout with alternate 

 or secund fascicles of subulate ramuli ; the ramuli generally secund 

 in each multifid fascicle; silicules sessile, secund, close together, 

 ovate-acuminate or subulate. 



Ectocarpus fasciculatus, Harv. Man. ed. 1. p. 40; ed. 2, p. 59. Wyatt, 

 Alg.Banm.TMQ. 302. Kiitz. Phyc. Un. p. 288. Sp. Alg. p. 451. J. Agardh, 

 Sp.Alg. p. 22. 



Hab. Between tide-marks, on the larger Algae j most commonly on Lami- 



naria digitata. 

 Geogr. Distr. Atlantic shores of Europe and North America. 



Descr. Filaments densely tufted, from three to six or eight inches long, some- 

 what entangled together at the base into ropy bundles, free and feathery 

 above, less branched than in most others of the genus, but nevertheless 

 repeatedly divided. The ramification is irregular, between alternate and 

 dichotomous, and the lesser branches especially are often flexuous or an- 

 gularly bent. They are distantly branched, with patent axils, and furnished 

 along their whole length with short, multifid ramuli, crowded together; 

 not strictly fasciculate, it is true, but appearing so to the eye and to a 

 moderately powerful lens. The ramuli are in truth secund, closely set, and 

 often overlapping each other, a ramulus rising from each successive articu- 

 lation of the penultimate branchlet. Articulations about twice as long as 

 broad, containing a dense endochrome, with a wide border. Silicules very 

 abundant, varying much in length, ovate-acuminate or subulate, very acute, 

 densely striate transversely. Colour when young a deep, greenish olive, 

 becoming pale and at length foxy in age. Substance membranaceous, soft, 

 closely adhering to paper in drying when the plant is young — much less 

 adhesive when old. 



An exceedingly common species, easily recognized by the 

 dense ramuli which appear to the naked eye to be tufted, but 

 which are really only closely placed, and secund on the penulti- 

 mate branchlets. The favourite habitat of E. fasciculatus is ou 



