CA R YOPIIYLLIA CEA . ZOA NTHID.E 



THE FURROWED CREEPLET. 



Zoanthus sulcatum. 



(Sp. nov.) 



Plate IX. Fig. 7. 



Specific Character. Upper half of column free from sand, and indented 

 wlth longitudinal furrows. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 

 Form. 



Basal band. Broad, with an irregularly sinuous outline, and offshoots, 

 often bearing three polypes abreast ; loosely invested with coarse sand. 



Column. Generally cylindrical, but versatile, sometimes hour-glass 

 shaped, springing out of a membranous epidermis, which tightly invests 

 it, and holds a few grains of very fine sand imbedded in it. "When ex- 

 tended, the column rises free and smooth out of this, which then reaches 

 to about one-third of the height. Surface marked with twenty-two (in 

 immature specimens twenty) longitudinal sulci, most conspicuous towards 

 the summit : in the button state this is rounded, with a central depression, 

 where the sulci meet. Each alternate inter sulcus forms a marginal tooth. 



Dish. Saucer-shaped ; radii not conspicuous. 



Tentacles. Equal in number with the intersulci, with which they cor- 

 respond, in two rows, the inner row to the marginal teeth, the outer inter- 

 mediate. Sub-equal, conical, pointed, usually radiating horizontally. 



Mouth. Not raised on a cone. 



Coloui:. 



Column. Dull uniform olive : each intersulcus having a blackish spot 

 near its summit ; and each tooth is silvery white. 



Disk. Yellow-olive ; but invariably more or less studded with very 

 minute grains of white sand, which seem fixed, and look like silver filings. 

 Aggregations of these grains specially occur at the bases of the secondary 

 tentacles, omitting the primary ones. 



Tentacles. Perfectly colourless and transparent, with spherical granules 

 of yellow-brown pigment, set like pavement on the interior surface of the 

 wall, generally in contact, yet here and there leaving large spaces alto- 

 gether unoccupied. The colour of the column and disk is evidently 

 formed by similar granules, but in uninterrupted contact. 



