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ECTOC ARPA CEfE. — Ectocarpus. 
iy. 
IV. ECTOCARPUS. Lyngb. 
Frond capillary, articulated, variously much-branched, flaccid. Articulations 
composed of a single cell, short, rarely twice or thrice as long as broad. Apices 
attenuated. Sp>ores spherical or ellipsoidal, scattered (rarely produced.) Propagula , 
or pod-like bodies, oblong, conical, linear or lanceolate, transversely striate, and 
celluloso-granulated, formed either of transformed ramuli, or of some portion of a 
ramulus, or of portions of the main and secondary branches. 
A large genus of confervoid Algre, usually much branched, and forming fine, 
feathery tufts of slender, soft, brownish or olive green filaments. The articulations 
are always very short, and nearly of equal size in all parts of the plant. They are 
usually filled with endochrome, which is sometimes pellucid, sometimes granulated, 
and sometimes condensed into a dark spot in the middle of the cell. The species 
are difficult to determine or fix limits to, owing to the uncertain nature of the 
ramification, which it is by no means easy to characterise, and which appears to 
vary in different specimens collected together and seemingly of one species. The 
best characters are derived from the propagula , or “ silicules,” as they have been 
called ; podlike bodies regarded as fructification. These are either formed in the 
substance of the branches, or of the whole substance of a shortened branchlet. 
They contain a darker endochrome than the unchanged branches, and are divided at 
minute intervals by transverse lines. The spaces between the lines are broken up 
into granular cells disposed in transverse bands, and supposed to be reproductive. 
The American species are not yet fully worked out, and though I have proposed 
some new ones below, I am by no means certain that they ought all to be retained. 
Some are but partially known, and all require a careful investigation on the sea 
shore. Solitary specimens of these plants are by no means sufficient, and when any 
seemingly new form is observed among them, numerous specimens ought not only 
to be collected, but the collector should notice what other seemingly different Ecto- 
carpus was growing with the supposed novelty ; and should carefully compare one 
form with the other before assuming that he has a new species to describe. This 
cannot be done at a distance, and in many cases I have had to decide from very 
insufficient materials. 
* Propagula short or elongated, formed in some portion of the larger or lesser branches , 
( not in the ultimate ramuli). 
1. Ectocarpus brachiatus, Harv. ; finely tufted, feathery, much branched ; the 
1 1 ran dies free, opposite or quaternate ; ramuli opposite, very patent ; propagula 
forming oblong or elliptical swellings in the smaller branches, or at the point where 
two opposite ramuli issue. Harv. Phyc. Brit. t. 4. J. Ag. Sp. Alg. 1 ,p. 20. 
