THE SPBAWLET. 265 



Size. 



Length of column about one-third of an inch [one inch, E. F.] ; diameter 

 one-eighth ; length of marginal tentacles one and a half inch [three or 

 four inches, E. F.]. 



Locality. 



The Hebridean and Norwegian Seas. 



This very interesting form, the only British example of 

 a natatory Anemone, has occurred on two occasions, both 

 in the month of August, and both in the Minch, the strait 

 that divides the Isle of Lewis from Scotland : — first by 

 Dr. Balfour in 1841, who obtained a number of specimens, 

 but all in a mutilated condition, and subsequently by 

 Messrs. E. Forbes and Good sir in 1850. In the interim, the 

 Rev. Mr. Sars, of Bergen, had described and figured it in 

 an elaborate memoir in the " Fauna Littoralis Norvegias " 

 (1846) : and it is from this that we derive our chief know- 

 ledge of the species, Forbes's account being exceedingly 

 meagre. 



It appears in the vicinity of the Isle of I lorbe, on the 

 coast of Norway, in autumn and winter, swimming on the 

 smooth sea, sometimes in dense shoals, sometimes singly, 

 borne on the northward current. Comparing the periods 

 of its occurrence in the Hebridean and Norwegian seas, we 

 may infer that it comes up from the warmer parts of the 

 Atlantic ; and it might .be hopefully looked for on the 

 west coasts of Ireland in the earlier summer. As it 

 swims it carries the marginal tentacles horizontally spread, 

 when it looks not unlike a long-legged spider : hence 

 the generic name from apayyr), a spider, and d/crls, a ray, 

 and hence also the English term I have assigned to it. The 

 superior or the inferior extremity is indifferently carried 

 uppermost. It swims by a languid undulation of the long 



