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'w .iir Id , e t i i a Roe'Tc TITILJ,
Ser. M e l a n o s p e e m e a 5. Earn. Ectocarpea.
P l a t e CXXVI.
ECTOCARPUS SPHAIROPHORUS, Cam.
G e n . C h a e . Eroncl capfikry, jointed, olive or brown, flaccid, single-tubed.
F ru it either spherical, elliptical, or lanceolate utricles (or spores),
borne on the ramuli, or imbedded in their substance. Eotocaepus
[Lyngh.),—from esros, external, and safmos, f r u i t .
E otoocoAaKepPuuss «¡mKivgjiiui IA.S-, filaments slender, short, densely tufted, much
branched; upper branches patent, opposite or in fours, bearing patent,
opposite ramuli; spores globose, sessile, either opposite to each other,
or to a branohlet.
E c t o c a e p u s sphffirophorus, Carm. Alg. Appin. ined. S a n . in Hook. Br.
M. vol. ii. p. 336. S u n . in Mack. M. Hih. part 3. p. 182. Harv. Man.
p. 43. Wyatt, Alg. Banm. no. 173.
E ctocaepus hrachiatus? Ag. Sp. Alg. vol. ii. p. 43.
H a b . Parasitical on the smaller Algre, between tide-marks. Annual. ^ Summer.
Rare. Appin, on Cladophora rupestris, Capt Carmichael.
Sidmouth and Torquay, on P tilo la sericea, Mrs. Griffiths. Bantry
Bay, Miss Hutchins. ‘Land’s End, Mount’s Bay, Hfracombe, and
Milford Haven, all on F tilo ta sericea; Menai Bridge, on Cladophora
n p e s tris, M r. B a lfs . In a narrow, darkened chasm, on east side
of Eda, Orkney, parasitical on F tilo ta sericea, and Clad, rupestris,
Lieu t. F. W. L . Thomas and JOr. Me B a in .
Geooe.D iste. Britisli Islands. Baltic Sea?
D e s c e . Filaments densely tufted, capillary, one to three inches high, straightish,
the tufts somewhat sp u y ; main threads somewhat matted together, the
branches free, many times divided. Lesser branches short, opposite, or in
fours, very patent, furnished at distant intervals with pahs of short opposite
spine-like ramuli. Apices attenuated but not very acute. Spores
spherical, dark olive, with a pellucid border, sessile, borne on the sides
of the branches, and opposite to each other or to a ramulus; each spore,
in fact, occupying the normal position of a ramulus, and substituted for
one on fertile specimens. Articulations about as long as broad, semitransparent,
with a few lai-ge gi-ains. Colour olivaceous, or rusty, or yellowish
brown. Substance flaccid, closely adhering to paper, whofly without
gloss when dry.
This species was first observed by the late Capt. Carmichael,
on the western shores of Scotland, about the year 1824; since
which period it has been detected in many other localities between
Orkney and Cornwall, but is nowhere a common plant, and where
it does occur, it is “ not diffused ” , as Mr. Ralfs well observes.
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