Ser. MelanospermejE. Fam. Fctocarpece. 



Plate CXCVIL 



ECTOCARPUS LITORALIS, Lgngb. 



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 Kapnos, fruit. 



Ectocarpus litoralis ; tufts dense, interwoven, olive-brown or foxy ; fila- 

 ments coarse, much and irregularly branched, the ultimate branchlets 

 patent, alternate, or rarely opposite ; masses of fructification imbedded 

 in the substance of the branches, in the form of oblong swellings. 



Ectocarpus litoralis, Lyngb. Hyd. Ban. p. 130. t. 42. (excl. var. /3.) Ag. 

 Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 40. Harv. in Hook. Br. Fl. vol. ii. p. 325. Harv. in 

 Mack. Fl. Hib. part 3. p. 181. Harv. Man. p. 40. Wyalt, Alg. Damn. 

 no. 129. Mtz. F/iyc. Gen. p. 289. Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 21. 



Ectocarpus compactus, Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 41. 



Ectocarpus ferrugineus, Ag. Syst. p. 163. Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 43. 

 Kiitz. Fhyc. Gen. p. 289 (?) 



Conferva litoralis, Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1634. Huds. Fl. Ang. p. 594. Light/. 

 Fl. Scot. p. 979. With. Br. Jr. vol. iv. p. 130. Roth, Cat. Bot. vol. i. 

 p. 152. Dillw. Conf. t. 31. E. Bot. t. 2290. 



Hab. Parasitical on Fuci and Laminarite, within and beyond the influence 

 of the tide. Annual ? At all seasons. Very common on the British 

 shores. 



Geogr. Distr. Abundant throughout the Northern and Atlantic Oceans. 



Descr. Filaments from six to twelve inches long, densely tufted, coarse, ex- 

 cessively branched, and often bundled together and matted into inextri- 

 cable fascicles. Branches spreading, very irregularly inserted, usually 

 alternate or scattered, sometimes, especially the smaller ones, opposite, 

 repeatedly divided, of unequal length and composition. Ramuli scattered, 

 or somewhat fascicled, usually alternate, erecto-patent, filiform, slightly 

 tapering. Articulations about as long as broad, or a little longer. 3la>>« a 

 of fructification formed at intervals in the substance of the smaller branches 

 and ramuli, oblong, more or less elongated, consisting of swellings, twice 

 the diameter of the filament, dark-coloured, and transversely striate. Colour 

 \\ Inn young, a greenish olive, becoming more and more brown, and even 

 foxy, or reddish in old age. Substance soft, but not gelatinous, closely 

 adhering to paper in drying, and not recovering well on re-immersion. 



One of the commonest of the British Alga:, and widely dispersed 

 along the shores of the ocean of most temperate countries, its 

 specific name litoralis is peculiarly applicable. Nor is this slnnv 

 plant at all particular in choosing the substances to which it 



