210 ANTHOZOA HELIANTIIOIDA. 



The experience of Mr. Thompson coincides with Dr. Coldstream's. 

 He says : — " Every shell that I have seen the A. maculata invest 

 was tenanted by the Pagurus Prideauxii, Leach, a species which^ 

 extensively as the native Paguri have been collected by me, never 

 occurred under other circumstances." — This testimony proves a 

 general confederacy between these animals, but the union is often 

 dissolved, and it is doubtful whether any benefit to either ever flows 

 from it. Professor Forbes assures me that on the coast of the Isle 

 of Man the shells to which the Adamsia attaches itself are seldom 

 inhabited by the hermit-crab ; neither is the horny base always 

 present. On one dredging excursion not a single specimen had 

 either crab or horny disc. Mr. Forbes adds, that the Adamsia 

 " seems to change its habitation according to its size." 



Professor Forbes has found an unspotted variety on the Manx 

 coast. 



30. Actinia,* Linnoens. 



Character. — Bod^/ conoid or cylindrical, adhering hy a 

 hroad base : the space between the mouth and the rim of the 

 upper disc occujned hy one or more uninterrupted series of coni- 

 cal undivided tubular tentacula which are entirely retractile. 



•f" Skin smooth. 



1. A. MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, body smooth, coiioid in contrac- 

 tion ; tentacula numerous, multiserial, subequal ; margin of the 

 oral disc with a circle of azure-blue tubercles. 



Plate XXXVI. Fig. 1—3. 



La plus petite des Orties de mer, Rondel. Poiss. 380. (quoad fig.) — Ortie de mer, 

 Reaumur in Mem. do PAcad. Roy. des Scienc. 1710, pi. 10, fig. 22. — Priapus 

 equinus, Lin. Syst. edit. 10. C5(i. — Hydra disciflora, tcntaculis retractilibus, extirao 

 disci margine tuberculato, GczrUier in. Phil. Trans, lii. 015, pi. i. fig. 5. Phil. Trans, 

 abridg. xi. 529. — Actinia equina, Lin. Syst. 1088. Dicqueniarc in Phil. Trans. 



hermit within. In all likelihood, they in various ways aid each other. The hermit 

 has strong claws, and while he is feasting on the prey he has caught, many spare 

 crumbs may fall to the share of his gentle-looking companion. But, soft and gentle- 

 looking though the anemone be, she has a hundred hands ; and woe to the wander- 

 ing wight who comes witliin the reach of one of them, for all the other hands are 

 instantly brought to its aid, and the hermit may soon fiiid that he is more than com- 

 pensated for the crumbs that fall from liis own booty." 

 * From a.Kri)i, a ray. 



