234 ANTHOZOA HELIANTHOIDA. 



has described an example. Mr. Cocks lias sent me a sketcli of an 

 individual that had two mouths of equal size and perfection. 



As A. dianthus is a permanently attached species, and cannot be 

 removed from its site without organic injury to the base, it has some 

 claim to be made the type of a genus. 



It is very possible that one or more species nearly related to A. 

 dianthus may have been hitherto confounded with it. My own 

 experience would lead me to believe, with Cuvier, that the dianthus 

 is unicolorous, and I must have seen several hundreds of indivi- 

 duals, — hence a suspicion that what has been described as a variety 

 with a chesnut-brown body, and barred and variegated tentacula, 

 {Couch, Corn. Faun, iii, p. 79.) may possibly have other characters 

 .also of a higher and specific value. Our dianthus is a deep-water 

 species, while the presumed coloured variety is found between tide- 

 marks. 



From want of sufficient information relative to their characters, I 

 purposely omit the following species: 1. Actinia truncata, Jameson 

 in Wern. Mem. i, 558. Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. 106. Tiirt. Gmel. iv. 

 101. Turt. Brit. Faun. 131. — 2. Act. sulcata, Templeton in Loudon's 

 Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 303. Templeton says that this is " most pro- 

 bably the young " of the A. eifoeta, but I do not know what species 

 he intends under the latter name. Can his sulcata be really the 

 effceta of Linnaeus 1 Of this all the description which Baster gives 

 is : " Directas ilia habet in corpore strias, et inferne basin, sive 

 marginem, qua se affigit." — 3. Act. caryophillits, Stew. Elem i. 394. 

 Turt. Gfraol. iv. 103. Penn. Brit. Zool. iv. 106. Introduced on 

 the authority of " Martin's Marine Worms," a work apparently very 

 rare, and which I have been unable to procure. It may possibly be 

 synonymous with A. dianthus. — 4. Act. anemonoides, Turt. Gmel. 

 iv. 101. Act. anemone, Penn. Br. Zool. 106. Quoted from Shaw's 

 Naturalist's Miscellany, tab. 26, 27. — The Actinia anemone of Ellis 

 is a West Indian species. 



Observations. 



The Actinire adhere to rocks, shells, and other extraneous bodies 

 by means of a glutinous secretion from their enlarged base ; but 

 they can leave their hold and remove to another station whensoever 

 it pleases them, either by gliding along with a slow and almost im- 



