Ser. MelanospeemejE. Fam. Ectocarpea. 



Plate XXII. 



ECTOCARPUS HINCKSLE, Ban. 



Gen. Char. Filaments capillary, jointed, olive or brown, flaccid, single- 

 tubed. Fruit, either spherical, elliptical, or lanceolate utricles, borne 

 on the ramuli, or imbedded in their substance. Ectocarptjs — from 

 cktos, external, and Kapnos, fruit. 



Ectocarptjs Hincksia ; tufted, dark olive ; filaments irregularly and dis- 

 tantly branched; branches tlexuous, furnished with secund ramuli 

 pectinated on the upper side ; utricles conical, sessile, lining the inner 

 face of the ultimate ramuli. 

 Ectocarptjs Hincksise, Harv. Man. p. 40. 



Hab. Parasitical on Laminaria bulbosa. Annual. June. At Ballycastle, 

 Miss Hincks. Torbay, Mrs. Griffiths; Mrs. Wyatt. Aberdeen, 

 Br. Dickie. Plymouth, Rev. W. S. Hore. Mounts Bay, Cornwall, 

 abundant, Mr. Ralfs. 



Geogr. Distr. British Islands. 



Descr. Filaments 1-2 inches high, dark olive, somewhat rigid for the genus, 

 (the substance very similar to that of E. littoralis), irregularly and rather 

 distantly branched, not matted together. The branches are furnished in the 

 upper part with secund spreading or somewhat recurved ramuli, which bear 

 on their inner faces a second series of closely set, subulate ones ; the com- 

 pound ramulus resembling a httle comb. Utricles conical, sessile, produced 

 along the inner face of the ramuli, one rising from almost every joint, giving 

 to the ramulus the appearance, under a lens of low power, of being serrated. 



My first knowledge of this species was from a solitary specimen 

 gathered in 1840, by Miss Hincks, daughter of the venerable and 

 respected Dr. Hincks, of Belfast. Though I had then seen but 

 one specimen, yet so striking were its characters that I did not he- 

 sitate to describe it forthwith as a new species ; and I had much 

 pleasure in dedicating it to its discoverer, to whom I am indebted 

 for many beautifully prepared and judiciously selected specimens 

 (diAlgce, and from whose explorations of our northern shores much 

 more novelty may be expected. 



Miss Hincks found her specimen on "one of the Laminariae," 

 but neglected at the time to notice which. The uncertainly of 

 habitat is, however, cleared up by Mr. Ralfs, who finds that in 



