REPORT ON THE ACTINIARIA. 91 



we were able to examine a larger number of specimens. In this case, the species would 

 keep the older name of Steplianactis ahyssicola. 



AmjJdanthus, n. gen. 



Amphianthidse with a firm wall, which is covered with fine papillae but not divided 

 into two sections by a circular swelling. 



Arnphianthus bathybium (PI. III. fig 11). 



Upper section of the wall furnished with twenty-four longitudinal furrows, which 

 disappear as they run downwards, and covered with A r ery small papilla?, mostly grouped 

 in transverse rows. 



Habitat.— Station 241. June 23, 1875. Lat. 35° 41' N., long. 157° 42' E. Depth, 

 2300 fathoms. One specimen. 



Dimensions. — Length, 4 cm. ; height, nearly 1 cm. 



I have placed here beside the Stephanactis a small Actinia of which a single specimen 

 was dredged from a great depth. It agrees with the genus Stephanactis in having an 

 elongated form, and in being attached to a cylindrical foreign body. I was unfortunately 

 unable to determine whether or not the internal anatomy also agrees, as the septa were so 

 badly preserved that, in examining the piece, in which, from analogy to the forms in 

 question, I expected to find the directive septa, I was unable to arrive at any definite 

 results, even by transverse sections. In what follows I shall, therefore, merely give a 

 short description of the form and of the surface of the body. 



The Actinia was firmly attached by its base round the stem of a Gorgonia unknown to 

 me, so that the margins of the pedal disk clasped one another by alternating indentations 

 like the notched margins of many bivalve shells (fig. 11, b). The insertions of from 

 ninety to one hundred septa appearing through the disk may be followed as white lines 

 proceeding a little way from the margins. At first sight the upper part of the wall seems 

 smooth, but under a tolerably strong magnifying glass we see that it is covered with 

 numerous very fine knobs, which look like the papules of an exanthema, and are arranged 

 in transverse rows (fig. 11, a), which lie at tolerably regular distances from one another, 

 and are separated by shallow furrows. The latter are crossed by twenty-four longitudinal 

 furrows, which are most distinct at the upper margin of the wall, but become shallower 

 before they reach its middle portion. 



The wall is so strongly contracted at the upper end, that the oral disk is completely 

 covered ; in correspondence with which we find in longitudinal sections a circular muscle 

 of considerable size, having the same form as the circular muscle of Stephanactis. 

 I only observed these differences, viz., that the bundles of muscles are stronger, more 

 numerous, and more thickly compacted. 



