THE CAVE-DWELLING ANEMONE. 89 



Acontia. Long and very slender. Emitted reluctantly, and only on 

 great irritation. 



Colour. 



Column. Olive, of a greener or browner tint in different specimens, 

 marked with pale longitudinal stripes, widest and most conspicuous at the 

 base, where the longer alternate with shorter ones, all generally vanishing 

 towards the summit. The suckers for the most part pale. 



Disk. Varied with black, white, and grey, in a delicately pencilled 

 pattern, that has justly been compared to the mottling of a snipe's feather. 

 The pattern, which is pretty constant, is produced by the following 

 elements: — each primary radius is greyish-white from the JJ-mark °f the 

 tentacle-foot, about half-way to the mouth ; then there is a patch of black 

 inclosing a spot of white (often very bright), and then a narrow line of 

 pale yellow or drab, edged with black, brings the radius to the lip. The 

 secondary radii have the same pattern, but more attenuated. 



Tentacles. Pellucid grey, crossed by three (or four) broad rings of 

 pellucid white, of which the lowest is undefined, and is frequently tinged 

 with buff or orange. At the foot of each tentacle is a black mark con- 



TENTACLE OF S. TROGLODYTES 



(front). 



sisting of a thick transverse bar, succeeded by two curves, the whole 

 bearing the form of the Roman capital letter B- This mark is very con- 

 stant and characteristic; sometimes, though the form is preserved, the 

 outline is wholly filled up with black ; and sometimes, but very rarely, the 

 whole is nearly or even quite obliterated. 

 Mouth. Generally whitish. 



Size. 



Large specimens attain a diameter of an inch in the column, and two 

 inches in expanse of flower : the height is sometimes two inches and a half, 

 but more commonly it does not exceed an inch." 



* Mr. Holdsworth, in one of his letters, has drawn a pen-and-ink sketch 

 of one which was protruding to a height of two inches from the sand at 

 the bottom of his tank ; and states that, as the sand was full two inches 

 thick, and that, to his belief, the troglodytes was attached,— it must have 



been four inches long. 



