Actinia. Z. HELIANTHOIDA. 217 



At Hastings in Sussex, Ellis. Tenbigh, Wales, Adams. Frith 

 of Forth, Dr Coldstream. Berwick Bay, common. 



When contracted the body is of a thick short sxibcylindrical form, 

 deeply wrinkled in two or three places, about three inches long, and 

 one-half of that in diameter, but when fully expanded about five 

 inches : the skin is quite smooth, and of a uniform whitish, cream or 

 flesh-colour. The centre of the oral disk is ornamented with a circle 

 of white bands radiating from the mouth, and the transparency of 

 the skin here permits us to see the lamellae running across the cir- 

 cumference with their narrow colourless interspaces. From these 

 interspaces the tentacula originate ; the largest about one inch long, 

 watery, white, tapered, smooth, irregularly dispersed, and very nu- 

 merous. They are all placed between the mouth and the margin, 

 which is encircled with a dense fringe of inimitable beauty, com- 

 posed of innumerable short tentacula or filaments forming a thick 

 furry border. 



I have seen specimens of this species, which is certainly as MuUer 

 says " actiniarum pulcherriraa," from the size of a split pea to fully 

 five inches in diameter, and have found it, in all the intermediate 

 sizes, uniform in shape and colour, but others have found it variable 

 in these respects. It is strictly gregarious, and the larger individuals 

 are generally surrounded by a multitude of small and middle-sized 

 ones, which form very pleasing groups. From this gregarious habit 

 it is subject to monstrosities, two or three occasionally uniting and 

 coalescing into one body, of which Dicquemare has described an ex- 

 ample. 



" This species is good to eat," according to Dicquemare ; and his 

 testimony may be strengthened by the authority of Plancus, who 

 says of his " Urtica soluta caryophyllura referens," — a synonyme 

 probably of A. Dianthus, * — " hsec more ostrearum coquitur, et una 

 cum ipsis, quibus, ut dixi, frequentissime heeret, comeditur." Plane. 

 de Conch, min, not. 43, tab. 4, fig, 6. + 



No one who has studied the species but will, I think, assent to the 

 conjecture of Cuvier that the A. Dianthus of Ellis is a mere variety 

 of the A. pluraosa of subsequent authors, the former having had the 

 oral disc deeper lobed than is usual from peculiarity of position or 



• If this opinion is correct, and to me the thing seems indisputable, then the 

 Actinia judaica, Lin. Syst. 1088, and of all other systematists who have fol- 

 lowed him, must be added to the aliases of A. Dianthus. 



f In reference to these edible Actinia I may here remark tliat the Anemonia 

 edulis of Risso, which, according to Rapp, is synonymous with the Anthea Ce- 

 reus of this work, furnishes the dish called Rastegna, a favourite in Provence. 

 " Nostrates vero hoc cibo delectari nonduni comperi." Baster, 



