Ser. Melanospehme^e. Fam. Ectocarpece. 



Plate CLIII. 



ECTOCARPUS PUSILLUS, Griff. 



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 

 (Lyngb.), — from eicros, external, and Kapnos, fruit. 



Ectocarpus pusillus; filaments tufted, interwoven, sparingly branched; 

 branches distant, very patent, flexuous, bearing a few, irregular, 

 patent, flexuous ramuli ; spores roundish- oblong, subsessile, frequently 

 opposite. 



Ectocarpus pusillus, Griff, in TPyatt. Alg. Damn. no. 212. Harv. Man. p. 41. 

 E.Bot. Suppl. t. 2872. 



Hab. Parasitical on several of the smaller Algae. Annual. Rare. Torquay, 

 Mrs. Griffiths. Land's End, St. Michael's Mount, and Ilfracombe, 

 Mr. Balfs. 



Geogr. Distr. South Coast of England. 



Descr. Filaments forming intricate, more or less interwoven tufts, from three 

 to six inches in length, resembling " pale-brown wool ;" slender, subsimple 

 or sparingly branched, flexuous or somewhat zigzag, of equal diameter 

 throughout, obtuse. Branches few, distant, very patent, very unequal inlength, 

 variously curved, obtuse, naked, or having a few very patent or horizontal, 

 obtuse, unequal, scattered ramuli. Spores generally abundant, scattered 

 over the filaments, roundish-oblong or sessile or subsessile, very elliptical, 

 frequently opposite. In some cases the empty spore-case, after it has 

 discharged the spore, alters its form, acquires joints, and seems to 

 elongate into a ramulus. Artie id at 'ions of the principal branches rather 

 longer than broad, idled with granular fluid, contracted at the joints. 

 Substance membranous, void of gloss, adhering, but not very closely, to 

 paper in drying. Colour, when young, greenish olive, becoming gradually 

 a pale brown. 



One of the least beautiful forms of the genus, but not without 

 interest, as a connecting link between the simpler and more 

 branching species. It was first found by Mrs. Griffiths in the 

 year 1835, and first made known to botanists in the excellent, 

 and often quoted, 'Algae Danmonicnscs ' of Mrs. Wyatt, It 

 grows on several of the smaller Algae, which it clothes with 

 shaggy flocculi, compared by Mrs Griffiths to tufts of "pale- 

 brown wool." In drying it sometimes assumes a green colour. 



The nearesl species, among British plants at least, to which it 



