THE TENTACLES. 365 



of minute orange warts, most conspicuous in the cen- 

 tral parts. About thirty-two fine orange lines radiate 

 from near the centre, which are lost before they reach 

 the circumference. The margin is cut into thirty-two 

 concave ovate lobes, a tentacle being between every two, 

 with the exception of eight of the interspaces sym- 

 metrically disposed, where a pedicled ocellus takes the 

 place of a tentacle. The pair of lobes which inclose 

 each ocellus are larger than the rest, and are of a rich 

 sienna-brown ; the other lobes are not associated in 

 pairs, are smaller, and are of a paler tint of the same 

 warm colour. 



The tentacles, twenty-four in number, are all alike : 

 their substance is pellucid-white with the tips crim- 

 son; the latter, however, are very liable to be torn 

 off. Their base can scarcely be called bulbous, but 

 this part is dilated into an ovate form in one direction 

 (viz. that from the centre outward) and thin in the oppo- 

 site. They are long and attenuated, being frequently 

 stretched to the length of a foot, and as slender for 

 most of their length as the finest sewing-thread- 

 They are waved and contorted in various free and ele- 

 gant curves, but are never drawn up into spiral coils; 

 their contraction, which is sometimes so great as to 

 reduce them to an inch in length, being effected 

 entirely by the shortening and thickening of their 

 substance. They are very adhesive, but I did not 

 find in them any power of stinging. 



The eyes, eight in number, are minute oval bodies, 



opaque yellowish -white, each placed at the tip of a 



rather long, slender footstalk, depending perpendicu- 



arly from the margin of the umbrella, and protected 



