o.>o 



Z. HELIANTHOIDA. 



Anthea. 



Fig. 33. 



Actinia Tuediie, Johnston in Mag. Nat. Hist. v. 163, fig. 58 ; and Trans. 



Newc. Nat. Hist. Soc. ii. 246 Anemonia edulis, Risso, L'Europ. 



Merid. v. 289. 



Hab. Coast of Berwickshire, in deep water. 



Anthea Tuedise is amongst the largest of our species. The body, 

 when relaxed, generally measures three inches in length, and about 

 the same in diameter ; it is of a uniform reddish or brownish-orange 

 colour, and either smooth or contracted at pleasure into circular folds. 

 The base is smooth and oi-ange- coloured, with a thin areolar skin. 

 The mouth is ever varying in size and form, and there are often pro- 

 truded from it vesicular-like lobes of a reddish colour scored with 

 fainter lines. When fully expanded, the oral disk is not less than 

 four inches across ; there is a smooth space between the mouth and 

 tentacula, which are very numerous, and placed in several rows 

 ai'ound the circumference ; those of the inner row are larger than the 

 others, measuring frequently two inches in length, and they become 

 gradually shorter in the exterior series. They are of a chesnut or 

 reddish flesh colour, often darker coloured towards the bases, but 

 never variegated with rings of different hues, thick and clumsy, ta- 

 pered to an obtuse point, marked longitudinally with distinct lines or 

 impressed striae, tubular, perforated at the ends, and constricted at 

 their insertions. The creature has no power of withdrawing them 

 within the oral aperture, nor does it seem capable even of shortening 

 them in any considerable degree, but it twists them in a wreathed or 

 spiral form, or gives the whole circle a greater or less degree of ex- 

 pansion. 



