Mr. P. H. Gosse on new species of British Actiniae. 283 



an inch long, which protrude a thread about three times their 

 own length. This is slender, but occasionally I have detected 

 a waved outline which indicates a bearded appendage. 



Actinia thallia. The Glaucous Warty Anemone. 



Button 1^ inch in diameter, usually ] inch in height, but 

 capable of elongation to double this altitude. Expanded flower 

 2 inches. 



Button pale bluish-green, studded with prominent warts of a 

 darker hue, set in 25 to 30 longitudinal rows, about 25 in each 

 row ; the topmost or marginal wart becoming an elongated pale 

 tubercle or rudimentary tentacle. 



Tentacles about 48 in number, in two rows, equal in size; 

 thick, obtuse, scarcely more than half as long as the diameter of 

 the disk, even when extended : — pellucid grayish-brown, with a 

 longitudinal, undefined, dark brown streak along the facial side 

 of each, on which are placed irregularly several specks and 

 splashes of opake white, varying in number, shape, size and 

 position. 



Disk a many -rayed star of yellow rays on a blackish ground : 

 thus produced : — the inner circle of tentacles have their discal 

 ribs blackish, with a spindle-shaped spot of yellow near the 

 mouth. Those of the outer row are similarly marked, but the 

 yellow spot is drawn out to a long line, dividing the primary 

 tentacle-ribs from each other : these lines make the rays of the 

 'facial star. 



This is a very well-marked and constant species ; out of a 

 dozen specimens that I procured, no two difiered in any appre- 

 ciable degree, except in size. It approaches close to A. gemmacea, 

 from which however it is easily distinguished by colour, and by 

 its superior dimensions. 



I found it in only one locality ; in the dark angles and pools 

 of a little insular rock, exposed at spring tide, that lies just off 

 the Cove called the Droch, near Lidstep in Pembrokeshire, on 

 the east side. It is not troglodyte in habit, but adheres to the 

 open rock, and is therefore easily detached. It is very social : I 

 almost invariably found four or five clustered together in a lump*, 

 each pressing upon the sides of the others. 



In captivity it is shy of expanding : it is also reluctant to ad- 

 here, and very readily detaches its base, either wholly or in part, 

 when it will frequently remain for days without again affixing 

 itself. If the water become stale, it manifests its impatience in 

 this way, and dies sooner than most species. Like gemmacea, it 

 throws off successive rings of mucus from its body, which accu- 

 mulate around its base if not removed. 



