Ser. Melanosperme^;. Fam. Ectocarpea. 



Plate CI. 



MYRIOTEICHIA CLAV.EFORMIS, Haw. 



Gen. Char. Filaments capillary, flaccid, jointed (simple), beset with quadri- 

 farious, simple, spine-like ramuli, clothed with byssoid fibres. Fruc- 

 tification, elliptical utricles (or spores ?) containing a dark-coloured 

 sporaceous mass. Myejotrichia {Harv.), — from [ivptos, a thousand, 

 and 6p\£ y a hair. 



Myriotrtchia clavteformis ; stem densely beset with quadrifarious ramuli, 

 which gradually increase in length from the base upwards, giving the 

 frond a club-shaped figure. 



Myriotrichia clavaeformis, Harv. inHook.Joum.Bot. vol. i. p. 300. t. 138. 

 Harv. in Mack. Fl. Hib. part 3. p. 182. Wyatt, Alg. Damn. no. 131. Harv. 

 Man. p. 44. Endl. 3rd Suppl. p. 24. 



Hab. Parasitical on Chorda lomentaria. Annual. Summer. Bantry Bay, 

 Miss Hutchins. Torquay, Mrs. Griffiths. Cable Island, near Youghal, 

 Miss Ball. North of Ireland and Ballantrse, Ayrshire, Mr. W. Thomp- 

 son. Howth and Balbriggan, Miss Gower. Mount's Bay, Cornwall, 

 Mr. Ralfs. Falmouth, Miss Warren. Jersey, Miss While. 



Geogr. Distr. British Islands. 



Descr. Fronds tufted, half an inch or rather more in length, flaccid, subgela- 

 tinous, simple, linear-clavate, dark olive brown, surrounded by colourless 

 fibres. Primary thread articulated, bare of ramuli below for a short dis- 

 tance above the base, upwards densely beset with patent simple quadrifarious 

 ramuli, the lowermost of which are very short or merely rudimentary, the 

 uppermost gradually longer and those toward the apex frequently producing, 

 in old specimens, a second series near their tips. From the apices and 

 sides of the ramuli, and from the lower part of the stem, spring innumerable 

 slender, byssoid, colourless, long-jointed fibres, which greatly increase the 

 bulk of the plant, and impart to it the peculiar softness. Articulations of 

 the stem and ramuli shorter than their breadth. Utricle* elliptical, <>r 

 somewhat ovate, sessile on the main threads, occupying the position of a 

 ramulus, having a pellucid limbus and containing a dark-coloured sporaceoui 

 mass. Colour dark olivaceous brown. 



This curious little parasite, which, in some seasons, is not 

 uncommon on the fronds of Chorda lomentaria, though far less 

 common than the closely-allied M.JiUformis, was discovered by 

 Miss Hutchins about the year 1S08, a circumstance unknown to 

 me when, in 1834, I published it as a novelty in the 'Journal of 

 Botany. To the majority of botanists it was then indeed new, 



