52 BULLETIN OF THE 



lower part of the body is usually nearly smooth and naked, with a firm, carti- 

 laginous texture, but higher up there will usually be some very large, low, 

 rounded verrucsc or tubercles, on some of which the brownish chitinous or epi- 

 dermal coating is usually retained. 



The tentacles are not very large, moderately long and slender, changeable, 

 with the tips either acute or obtuse ; in large examples they are numerous, 

 forming several rows. 



The color of the body, in life, is usually white, dull pale red, flesh-color, 

 or salmon, where it is not concealed by the dirty, dark brown epidermis; the 

 verrucse are often whitish or pink, while the wrinkles and grooves between 

 them are dark brown or mud-color ; the submarginal zone, which is 15 to 

 20 mm. or more broad in the larger examples, is bright red, orange-brown, or 

 chocolate-brown; the color is often in stripes of darker and lighter tints. The 

 tentacles are usually dark pink, salmon, orange or orange-brown, varying to 

 dull red and chocolate-brown. Disk usually orange or reddish brown, or 

 chocolate, with lighter and darker radii. 



This species grows to a large size. Examples are often taken that are 80 to 

 100 mm. (4 inches) in diameter, and 100 to 150 mm. (6 inches) high. Ordi- 

 nary adult specimens are 50 to 75 mm. broad, and 80 to 100 mm. high, with 

 the larger tentacles -about 15 to 20 mm. long. 



Of the typical variety, a number of specimens were taken by the Blake, 

 south of George's Bank and off Martha's Vnieyard, at Stations 303, 309, 310, 

 in 260 to 306 fathoms; at Station 332, off Cape Hatteras, in 263 fathoms; and 

 at Station 336, off Delaware Bay, in 197 fathoms. 



It has been taken by the U. S. Fish Commission at a large number of sta- 

 tions on the Gulf Stream Slope, off Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and Long 

 Island, and off Chesapeake Bay, during ISSO, 1881, and 1882, in 86 to 506 

 fathoms. In this region it is often very abundan . and of large size, in 160 to 

 506 fathoms. The smaller ones mostly occur clasping the tubes of Hijalinacia; 

 the large ones generally enclose a ball of sand and mud, in the bulbous base. 

 It has also been taken by the Fish Comndssion off Cape Cod, in 50 to 90 

 fathoms, 1879, 1882; Gulf of Maine, Massachusetts Bay, Casco Bay, Bay of 

 Fundy, in 50 to 150 fathoms, 1872 to 1879; ott' George's Bank, in 430 fathoms, 

 on the Bache, 1872; off Nova Scotia, in 50 to 110 fathoms, 1877. 



The Gloucester fishermen have brought it in from a large number of locali- 

 ties, on all the fishing banks, from George's to the Grand Bank, in 30 to 300 

 fathoms. It is particularly common on the stony bottoms of Le Have Bank, 

 Western Bank, and Ban(|uereau, off Nova Scotia. 



The description of this species by Fabricius, from Greenland examples, ap- 

 plies accurately to one of our commonest varieties. I have also received two 

 examples from Denmark, through Dr. Chr. Lutken, of the Copenhagen Mu- 

 seum, which, so far as can be seen from the alcoholic specimens, agree perfectly 

 with some of our less nodose varieties. These were sent as Actinia dirjitata 

 Miiller. But the Actinia (or Tealia) dicjitata of Gosse and several other 

 European writers may be a distinct species. 



