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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 71
other algæ. It is distinguished from our other species by the short, broad, and sessile sporangia. In the
type the branching is opposite and compact, and the corticating filaments are sometimes so numerous,
especially in the Newport specimens, as to lead one to admit the validity of Kützing’s genus
Corticularia. But in other cases the corticating filaments are few in number.
E. CONFERVOIDES, (Roth) Le Jolis. (Ectocarpus siliculosus, Phyc. Brit., Pl. 162; Ner.
Am. Bor., Vol. I, p. 139.)
Filaments erect, two to twenty inches long, loosely entangled at the base, becoming
free and feathery above; branches alternate or secund, gradually tapering; cells of
larger branches .04-5 mm in diameter; plurilocular sporangia ovate-acute or
acuminate, sessile or stalked, sometimes rostrate average size of sporangia .025-
40 mm broad by .15-40 mm long; unilocular sporangia oval or ellipsoidal, .023-30 mm
broad by .035-50 mm long.
α, var. SILICULOSUS, Kjellman. (Ectocarpus viridis, Harv., Ner. Am. Bor., Vol I, p.
140, Pl. 12 b and c.)
Plurilocular sporangia subulate or linear-subulate, sessile or subsessile, frequently
rostrate.
β, var. HIEMALIS, Kjellman. (Ectocarpus hiemalis, Crouan.)
Plurilocular sporangia elongated, conical or subacuminate, .08-15 mm long by .02-3 mm
broad, generally rostrate.
Very common on algæ and wood work along the whole coast.
Var. α, most common south of Cape Cod.
Var. β, Wood’s Holl, Mass.?
The largest, moat variable, and most common summer species of our coast, and found in nearly all
parts of the world. It has been subdivided by Kützing into a large number of species, which are scarcely
to be recognized from his descriptions and plates. Formerly some of the different forms of E. littoralis
were referred to the present species, but the true E. littoralis is now recognized as belonging to the
subgenus Pylaiella. Those interested in tracing the synonymy of E. confervoides should consult
Kjellman’s Bidrag till Kännedomen om Skandinaviens Ectocarpeer och Tilopterider, Stockholm, 1872.
As seen on our own coast, what we have called the typical E. confervoides forms tufts of indefinite
extent on wharves, and especially on the larger algæ, varying in length from a few inches to a foot and
a half long. It frequently fringes the fronds of Chorda filum with its soft, silky tufts. In the type the
plurilocular sporangia, which are much more common than the unilocular, are ovate-acuminate, and
only occasionally rostrate. In the variety siliculosus the plurilocular sporangia are long and
comparatively very narrow. The variety hiemalis is found in the winter and spring, and has
plurilocular sporangia, which are almost always rostrate and somewhat cylindrical in form, so that
they may be said to resemble those of the subgenus Pylaiella. The color of the present species when
growing is a light brown approaching yellowish, which in drying often turns to a yellowish-green,
especially in the variety siliculosus, of which herbarium specimens might be mistaken for Cladophoræ.
The winter forms are deeper brown than those found in summer. E. amphibius, mentioned in the
supplement to the Nereis as occurring near New York in brackish water, is a form of the present
species.