MELANOSPERME®. 83 
There are several other species of Ectocarpus, some of which are very 
rare, but a few of them must be described, through briefly. E. Hincksie, a 
rare and beautiful but small species, may be looked for on the large 
oarweeds. It was discovered by Miss Hincks, of Belfast (whose name it 
appropriately bears), near the Giant’s Causeway. Fine specimens are to be 
found growing on the larger Laminarie off St. Michael’s Mount, Cornwall, 
and also at Plymouth. FE. tomentosus grows in abundance on the rock 
Fuci; the filaments of the branches are extremely slender, and densely 
interwoven and matted together. LE. crinitus, the filaments of which are 
more delicate than the finest hair, spread over the surface of muddy 
shores like fine fleeces of a light brownish olive, changing to a glossy green 
in drying. E£. pusillus,a small species, parasitical on some of the Poly- 
siphonie ; E. distortus on Zostera marina; and E. Landsburgii, 
obtained only by dredging in deep water. E. longifructus, very similar to E. 
littoralis (Fig. 81), but having long attenuated silicules, which are very 
closely marked with transverse strix. E. spherophorus, a small plant 
parasitical on the beautiful Ptilota elegans, and some other small alge. 
This species may be readily known by the form of its fruit vessels (which 
are spherical), being produced opposite to each other on the upper 
branches, singly or in pairs, and sometimes even in groups of fours, 
attached to the sides of the stems of the plant. LH. tessellatus, an extremely 
rare plant, I have found only occasionally near Plymouth. The fruit vessel 
of this species is a remarkable object under the microscope. The whole 
of the surface is marked like a tessellated pavement, whence the specific 
name. 
Young collectors will find at first almost as much difficulty in distin- 
guishing species among this group of algz as is often the case with the 
puzzling varieties of Cladophore. But,as I have already observed, the 
presence of fruit in the Ectocarpew, which is often abundantly produced, 
saves an infinity of trouble, and only requires a little practice with the 
microscope, or even a good ordinary lens, to identify most of the species 
of these delicate alge. The Cladophore, it will be remembered, are all green, 
alike in the living state and after they are pressed and dried, while the 
Ectocarpee, although mostly of a greenish hue when they are mounted on 
paper, are all, while growing, either olive or a brownish-olive colour. 
The genus Myriotrichia, from the Greek for “numberless hairs” (in 
reference to the multitudes of ramuli and fibres which clothe the stems 
of these minute parasitical plants), consists of two species, either or both 
of which are frequently met with where Chorda lomentaria (Fig. 44) and 
Asperococcus echinatus (Fig. 69) occur. These unattractive but curious 
plants are generally abundant during the summer months, parasitical 
chiefly on the constricted fronds of Chorda lomentaria (Fig. 44), encircling 
the long cylinders of this alga at intervals, and crowning the tips with a 
brush-like tuft of slender, twisted or entangled filaments. Fig. 82' re- 
presents the species Myriotrichia filiformis, somewhat magnified, attached 
toa frond of Chorda lomentaria (Fig. 44). Reference to the high powers 
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