Ser. MelanospeemejE. Fam. Ectocarpea. 



Plate CLXXXII. 



ECTOCARPUS TOMENTOSUS, L m b. 



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

 Fruit either spherical, elliptical, or lanceolate utricles (or spores) 

 borne on the ramuli, or imbedded in their substance. Ectocarpus 

 [Lpigb.), — from euros, external, and <apivos, fruit. 



Ectocarpus tomentosus; filaments very slender, nexuous, irregularly 

 branched, interwoven into a dense, sponge-like, branching frond; 

 utricles stalked, linear- oblong, obtuse. 



Ectocarpus tomentosus, Lyngb. Hyd. Dan. p. 132. t. 44. Ag. Syst. p. 163. 

 Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 44. Grev. Crypt. Fl. t. 316. Harv. in Hook. Br. 

 Fl. vol. ii. p. 326. Harv. in Mack. Fl. Hib. part 3. p. 181. JFyatt, Alg. 

 Damn. no. 37. Fndl. 3rd Suppl. p. 21. Kiitz. Pliyc. Gen. p. 290. 



Ceramium tomentosuni, Ag. Syn. p. 64. Hook. Fl. Scot, part 2. p. 86. 



Chantransia tomentosa, Fndl. 3rd Sitpp. p. 21. 



Conferva tomentosa, Huds. Fl. Ang. p. 594. Light/. Fl. Scot. p. 982. 

 With. Br. PI. vol. iv. p. 130. Billw. Brit. Conf. t. 56. Roth. Cat. vol. ii. 

 p. 180. and vol. hi. p. 147. 



Hab. Parasitic on Fucus vesiculosus, Himanthalia lorea, and other Alga?, 

 between tide -marks ; occasionally on rocks and stones. Frequent on 

 the British coasts. Annual. Summer. 



Geogr. Distr. Atlantic shores of Europe and America. Cape Horn, Br. Hooker. 



Descr. Spongy fronds (composed of innumerable densely matted filaments) 

 from one to eight inches or more in length, sometimes half an inch in 

 diameter below, usually much less, commonly from half a line to one or 

 two lines, very much branched ; branches alternate or irregular, filiform, 

 crowded, simple, or bearing a second or third series of lesser branches ; 

 when spread out in the water beautifully feathered with the free portion of 

 the filaments of which they are composed ; collapsing, on removal from the 

 water, into a spongy subgelatinous mass. Filaments very slender, equal, 

 flexuous, very irregularly branched, the branches patent or divaricating, 

 alternate or secund, often very short. Articulations twice or thrice as long 

 as broad, more or less pellucid. Utricles linear-oblong, or somewhat ellip- 

 tical, obtuse, borne on little stalks, rising from all parts of the lesser 

 branches. Colour varying from a pale olive green to a rusty brown. Sub- 

 stance soft, and somewhat gelatinous ; closely adhering to paper in drying. 



From all the British species of Ectocarpus this is at once dis- 

 tinguished by a remarkable difference in habit, the filaments 

 being aggregated together, intertwined, and even firmly com- 

 pressed into a branching frond, which at firsl sight is not unlike 

 the spongy frond of a Codium. In sonic specimens this character 



