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Ser. M elanospeemeæ. Ram. Ectocarpece.
P l a t e CLXXXII.
ECTOCARPUS TOMENTOSUS, Lyngh.
G en . Ch a e . Frond capillary, jomted, olive or brown, flaccid, single-tubed.
F m it either spherical, elliptical, or lanceolate utricles (or spores)
borne on the ramnli, or imbedded in their substance. E ctocaepus
{Lgngi.),—from eta-os, external, and Kapnos, f r u i t .
E ctocaepus tomentosus ; filaments very slender, flexuous, irregularly
branched, interwoven into a dense, sponge-like, branching frond;
utricles stalked, linear-oblong, obtuse.
E ctocaepus tomentosus, Lyngb. Hyd. Ban. p. 132. t. 44. Ag. Syst. p. 163.
Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 44. Qrev. Orypt. M. t. 316. Harv. in Hook. Br.
M. vol. ii. p. 826. Harv. in Mack. M. H ii. part 3. p. 181. Wyatt, Alg.
Banm. no. 37. Fndl. 3rd Svppl. p. 31. Kütz. Phyc. Gen. p. 290.
Ceeamium tomentosum, Ag. Syn. p. 64. Hook. M. Scot. part 3. p. 86.
Ch .vntkansia tomentosa, Fndl. 3rd Supp. p. 21.
Conferva tomentosa, Huds. FI. Ang. p. 594. Lightf. FI. Scot. p. 982.
With. Br. PI. vol. iv. p. 130. Billw. Brit. Conf. t. 56. Both. Cat. vol. ii.
p. 180. and vol. iii. p. 147.
H ab. Parasitic on Fucus vesiculosus, Flimanthalia lorea, and other Algæ,
between tide-marks ; occasionally on rocks and stones. Frequent on
the British coasts. Annual. Summer.
Geogk. D is t e . Atlantic shores of Eui'ope and America. Cape Horn, Br. Hooker.
De sc e . Spongy fronds (composed of innumerable densely matted filaments)
from one to eight inches or more in length, sometimes half an inch in
diameter below, usually much less, commonly from half a line to one or
two lines, very much branched ; branches alternate or irregular, filiform,
crowded, simple, or bearing a second or third series of lesser branches ;
when spread out in the water beautifully feathered with the free portion of
the filaments of wliich they are composed ; collapsing, on remova from the
water, into a spongy subgelatinous mass. Filaments very slender, equal,
flexuous, very irreg-ularly branched, the branches patent or divaricating,
alternate or secund, often very short. Articulations twice or thrice as long
as broad, more or less pellucid. Utricles linear-oblong, or somewhat elliptical,
obtuse, borne on little stalks, rising fr-om all parts of the lesser
branches. Colour varying from a pale olive green to a rusty brown. Substance
soft, and somewhat gelatinous ; closely adhering to paper in drying.
From all the British species of Eclocarpus this is at once dis-
tinguished by a remarkable difference in habit, the filaments
being aggregated together, intertwined, and even firmly compressed
into a branching frond, which at first sight is not unlike
the spongy frond of a Codium. In some specimens this character
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