Ser. Melanosperme^s. Fam. JEctocarpea. 



Plate CCXXXIII. 



ECTOCARPUS LANDSBURGII, Harv.{n.s P .) 



Gex. 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 fKTos, external, and Kapnos, fruit. 



Ectocarpus Landsburgii ; filaments dark-brown, tenacious, intricate, 

 much branched; branches irregularly forked, divaricated, zigzag, 

 bristling with numerous short, spine-like, horizontal ramuli ; articu- 

 lations shorter than broad, the endochrome filling the cell, and 

 recovering its shape on being moistened, after having been dried. 



Hab. Dredged in deep water, in land-locked bays; rare. Annual. 



Summer. Lamlash, Isle of Arran, Rev. D. Landsborough. Round - 



stone Bay, Galway, W. H. H. 



Geogr. Distr. Shores of Scotland and Ireland. 



Descr. Filaments capillary, one or two inches in length, densely entangled in 

 small tufts, or rolled together in masses, irregularly much branched, of 

 about the same diameter from the base to the apex. Branches spreading 

 at very wide angles, dichotomous, or alternate, the lesser divisions very 

 patent, horizontal, or recurved. Ramuli short, spine-like, horizontal, simple, 

 or forked, not half a line in length, now thinly, now thickly scattered over 

 the branches, rarely opposite. Articulations shorter than broad, tilled by 

 a coloured bag; the dissepiments and border very narrow. Substance 

 tenacious, membranous, not closely adhering to paper, and not affected 

 by long steeping in fresh water. Colour, a dark brown. 



The first specimens which I received of this curious little 

 plant were dredged by rny friend the Rev. D. Landsborough in 

 Lamlash Harbour, a circumstance which I record in the specific 

 name ; pleased with the opportunity thus afforded me of con- 

 necting Mr. Landsborough's name with the botany of an island 

 whose history and natural beauties it has been to him a labour 

 of love to illustrate by his pen.* 



The ramification of our E. Landsburgii so nearly agrees with 

 that of Fj. distortuSy Carm., that I felt disposed, at first, to 

 regard it as that species. But a careful comparison of both 



* A.RBAN, a poem in Biz canto- ; and Excursions to Air.in. with reference to 

 the natural history of the island H\ the Rev. D. Landsborough : — Edinburgh, 

 L 84 7 . 



