This charming plant, one of the rarest and most beautiful of 

 the filiform marine Alga?, is one of the many interesting disco- 

 veries which we owe to Mr. Lilly Wigg, of Yarmouth, who first 

 gathered it in the year 1799. It was named by Mr. Turner in 

 compliment to the late celebrated Professor Mertens, of Bremen, 

 " as well to bear testimony to his unwearied zeal and extensive 

 knowledge of the confervoid Algae, as in token of private 

 respect "; and, though not the discoverer of this species, it can- 

 not be questioned that the compliment was very appropriately 

 and justly paid. No botanist of his day, with the exception of 

 Mr. Turner himself, was so deeply skilled in the study of marine 

 botany, as Professor Mertens. 



Edocarpus Mertemii, from the date of its first discoveiy to 

 the year 1834, was found in such small quantities that it was 

 known to very few botanists, except by the figure in ' Eng. Bot/ 

 In that year it was gathered by Mrs. Griffiths, Miss Cutler, and 

 Mrs. Wyatt, in three stations on the Devonshire coast, and in 

 considerable plenty ; and, more recently, it has been detected in 

 many localities by various collectors. In land-locked harbours, 

 such as Salcombe, it attains a very large size, some of Mrs. 

 Wyatt's specimens being upwards of a foot in length. In more 

 exposed places it seldom exceeds three or four inches. It is in 

 greatest beauty in April and May, at which time its fronds 

 are glossy, beautifully feathered and of a clear olive ; later in 

 the season it becomes browner, and looses much of the feathery 

 appearance. In some respects it exhibits a transition to Sp/ia- 

 celaria, proving the close connection which exists between that 

 genus and Uctocarpus, and the little necessity there is for 

 placing them in different families, as is now done by Continental 

 authors. 



Fig. 1. Ectocarpus Mertensii: — of the natural size. 2. Upper portion of a 

 branch. 3. Fertile ramuli, with the immersed, binate spores. 4. Apex of 

 a young ramulus, ending in a fibre : — all more or less highly magnified. 



