Ser. MelanospermejE. Fam. Ectocarpece. 



Plate CCCXXIX. 



ECTOCARPUS DISTORTUS, Cam. 



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

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

 ternal or imbedded spores-, or lanceolate, linear, or conical silkies 

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

 of the branches. Ectocarpus (Li/ngh.), — from cktos, Kapnos, external 

 fruit. 



Ectocarpus distortus; filaments very much branched, matted together, 

 dark-brown, angularly bent ; branches spreading at very obtuse 

 angles, alternate or secund ; ramuli horizontally patent or recurved, 

 scattered, short, spine-like, obtuse; spores obovate, sessile or sub- 

 sessile. 



Ectocarpus distortus, Carm. Alg. Appin. MSS. cum Ic. Harv. in Hook. Br. 

 Fl. vol. ii. p. 326. Harv. Man. ed. 1. p. 42. ed. 2. p. 60. 



Hab. Parasitical on the leaves of Zostera marina. Annual. Summer 

 and autumn. Appin, Capt. Carmichael (1824), Rev. D. Lands- 

 borough (1850). 



Geogr. Distr. 



Descr. Tufts from four to eight inches long or more, very dense and full ; the 

 threads of which they are composed closely matted together and inextri- 

 cable. Filaments very much branched, and in a very irregular manner 

 between alternate and dichotomous ; the branches spreading at very wide 

 angles, forming almost rounded axils, and bent at intervals in a zigzag 

 manner. Lesser branches either spreading at right angles or recurved. 

 Hamuli scattered freely along the branches, divaricating, short, spine-like, 

 but obtuse. Articulations pretty uniformly as long as broad, enclosing a 

 square mass of dark-coloured endochrome, the walls of the cells thick, 

 leaving wide colourless dissepiments. Spores (which I formerly examined 

 on one of Capt. Carmichael's specimens, but which 1 have not succeeded 

 in finding on the one now figured) obovate or elliptical, scattered, sessile 

 or slightly stalked, dark brown, with a pellucid limbus. Colour a deep 

 chestnut-brown. Substance membranaceous, and very brittle, if moistened 

 after having been dried. The plant imperfectly adheres to paper. 



In a former number, under E. Landsburgii (Plate CCXXXIIT.) 

 I have pointed out the marks of distinction between that species 

 and the present, its nearest ally. A comparison of the two 

 figures will now enable the student to appreciate the characters 



VOL. III. % A 



