SEA-ANEMONES 145 



northward, and is found near low- water mark in tide-pools, on the under 

 side of large stones, in sheltered crevices of rocks, and on the piles of 

 wharves and bridges. In contraction it is a broad, low cone, but Avhen 

 expanded is sometimes ten inches across the disk. Allied species found 

 in Florida are eighteen inches in diameter. The column is smooth, 

 cylindrical, and broader than long. At the top is a slightly elevated, 

 thickened fold, and above this a deeply folded and frilled margin, with 

 numerous fine, short tentacles, appearing like a fringe, which cover the 

 upper side of the disk half -way to the oval mouth. The color is exceed- 

 ingly variable ; commonly the column is yellowish-brown, but it may be 

 pink, white, salmon, orange, or dark brown, or striped or mottled with 

 different colors. The disk and folds are lighter or flesh-colored, and the 

 tentacles are of varying colors, usually grayish with tips of brighter 

 colors. When irritated this species throws out from the column num- 

 bers of long, slender white threads (acontia), which are covered with 

 minute stinging-cells. These organs of defense protect the animal 

 from the attacks of many enemies. 



GENUS Rhodactinia 



R. davidsii (Agassiz), Tealia crassiformis (Gosse), the thick- 

 petaled rose-anemone. The color varies, being often bluish -green 

 mottled with crimson, often bright cherry-red, with the thick tentacles 

 somewhat lighter in shade, or flesh -colored. The animal is found in 

 shallow water. It assumes various shapes, changing every few minutes. 

 The tentacles are short, conical, and uniform in size ; the column, the 

 breadth of which is greater than its height, often has wart-like processes 

 in longitudinal lines. The diameter of the disk is about three inches. 

 Found from Cape Cod northward in tide-pools and on ledges covered 

 with Fucus. 



GENUS Holocampa 



H. producta. Its column, stretched to its full extent, is a foot in 

 length and about an inch in diameter, but when contracted is much 

 shorter and thicker. It has but twenty tentacles, and these have swollen 

 tips. Rows of suckers extend the length of the column. It ranges from 

 Cape Cod to South Carolina, and is found under rocks at low-tide mark, 

 and also on sandy beaches, buried in the sand, with its tentacles only 

 above the surface. 



GENUS Sagartia 



S. leucolena, the white-armed anemone. It ranges from Cape Cod 

 to North Carolina, and is common in Long Island Sound, being found at 

 low-water mark on the under side of stones. The column is elongated, 

 cylindrical, translucent, flesh-colored, with simple plain disk and long, 

 slender, whitish tentacles crowded together near the margin. 



