108 SAGARTIAD^. 



markable power of elongation in the dark, alluded to by him, 

 I have often noticed. The finest specimen I have ever seen 

 used to stretch up at night in the form of a perpendicular 

 column,- five inches in height, with a thickness of about 

 two-thirds of an inch ; from the summit of which the 

 numerous slender tentacles, arching outward on all sides, 

 and extended to extreme tenuity and translucency, gave to 

 the whole animal somewhat of the appearance of an elegant 

 palm-tree. This form I have endeavoured to imitate in 

 Plate III. fig. 3 ; though the engraver has not succeeded in 

 conveying an adequate idea t>f the shadowy character of the 

 tentacles, which look like a thin light blue cloud when seen 

 against a dark background. The more ordinary appearance 

 I have given in Plate VI. fig. 11. 



But as little doubt exists in my mind that the species is 

 the viduata of the " Zoologia Danica." I have before me 

 at this moment specimens, which answer almost precisely 

 to Miiller's description, even in such minute characters as 

 the number of the white bands (twenty-six in mine, 

 " viginti-quatuor" in his); the dark brown speck, with a 

 white dot in its centre — "puncto pertuso " — at the summit 

 of each main band; the slender' evanescent line between 

 the bands — " inter has strigas alia tenuior et pallidior ;" 

 the longitudinal dark lines of the tentacles — " lineola. 

 duplici longitudinali obscura ;" and even the minute 

 depression in the middle of each tentacle at its foot — 

 " foveola versus basin :" all these points I trace readily ; 

 and while they do honour to the precision of the great 

 Danish zoologist, they abundantly prove the identity of 

 our species with his. Whether his undata is not a variety 

 of the same, I am not sure. 



The Actinia lacerata of Dalyell I also incline to identify 

 with the present, — from what he says of the colour, the 

 length, form, and contour of the tentacles, the card-like, 



