OF SEA-ANEMONES. 101 



shorter tentacles are of a uniform dirty transparent 

 white, the longer have blotches of pink or puce upon 

 the white ground. In the interior of the tentacles 

 are visible small oval cream-coloured bodies. Oral 

 disc peUucid, with the appearance of having been 

 sprinkled with chalk. 



" It inhabits rocky ridges at extreme low-water 

 mark, taking possession of the deserted hole of a 

 Pholas, or some other rock-boring mollusc ; it is also 

 partial to narrow crevices. When alarmed it with- 

 draws itself completely within its hole. This species 

 is now very rare, in consequence of its being much 

 sought after fi'om its great beauty in an aquarium. 

 From the different spots which it selects for a home 

 many more are destroyed by ignorant curiosity- 

 hunters than are secured alive. It is described in 

 the 'Zoologist' for 1851, Appendix cxxvii." 



A. thallia, "The Glaucous Anemone" (Gosse). — 

 This anemone is described in Mr. Gosse's ' Tenby' 

 as a new species. It differs from the "Gem" in 

 colour and in its " superior size." But if my theory 

 be right that colour is a mark of variety, and not of 

 species, we are thrown back on the size of the 

 animal as the only distinctive specific mark. Mr. 

 Gosse states that its disc is 2 inches in diameter. 

 Many specimens, however, of the ordinary " Gem" 

 have been brought to me from Morte-stone of a 

 similar size ; one, in x^ai'ticular, measuring 2 J inches 



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