THE ORANGE-DISKED ANEMONE. 61 



in h. and a half, or rather more. The height rarely exceeds three-fourths 

 of an inch. 



Locality. 



Various points in the south and west of Great Britain and Ireland. Iu 

 Scotland it has not been recognised. Hollows iu perpendicular and over- 

 hanging rocks, exposed at low water: dark tide-pools. 



Varieties. 



The variation seems to be limited to the greater or less depth of tint in 

 the column. 



This most elegant species was first met with by myself 

 in the neighbourhood of Tenby, where it is so abundant as 

 to be quite characteristic. It has since been found in 

 several other somewhat remote habitats, but nowhere in 

 anything like the profusion in which it occurs in that its 

 first recognised home. I am justified therefore in consider- 

 ing South Wales the metropolis of the species. It occurs 

 all along the south coast of Pembrokeshire, at least from 

 Monkstone Point to St. Gowan's Head ; but is more than 

 usually numerous in the fine perforate caverns of St. 

 Catherine's Island, that form such an attraction to Tenby 

 visitors, and in the hollows and erosions of that rich pre- 

 serve of zoophytic game, — the Woolhouse Rocks. 



The Orange-disk is essentially a cave-dweller ; almost 

 invariably choosing for its residence some crevice or cranny, 

 or one of those little cavities made by boring mollusks, 

 with which the limestone on those coasts is generally 

 honeycombed. Occasionally, indeed, we find it in shallow 

 pools, with a bottom of impalpable mud, the detritus pro- 

 duced by the action of the waves on the surrounding rocks ; 

 but in such cases it will be invariably found that the 

 Actinia is attached to a hollow in the solid floor of the pool, 

 protruding its body through the deposit by elongation, and 

 expanding its beautiful disk on the surface. Owing to this 



