THE MUSEUM 



A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Research in Natural Science. 



Vol. IV 



ALBION. N. Y.. JUNE 15. 1S98. 



No. 8 



The Sea Anemones of the Atlant- 

 ic Coast. 



[Continued from May number.) 



The Star Sea Anemone, ijhi nodes 

 Stella. I'err.), is another beautiful and 

 interesting species, which may readily 

 be domesticated in an aquarium, and 

 proves very hardy in confinement. 

 This species, instead of having a 

 smooth body like the preceding, is 

 covered with little wart-like pustules, 

 arranged in vertical rows, which have 

 the power of adhering firmly to for- 

 eign substances, such as bits of shell 

 and sea-weed with which it often so 

 completely covers its body as to effect- 

 ually conceal itself, when contracted 

 into a low cone among the rocks and 

 gravel where it often dwells. But 

 when it lives, as it frequently does on 

 the Maine Coast in fissures and cavi- 

 ties of ledges, overhung and protected 

 by sea-weed, it usually discards its 

 foreign covering, which now becoming 

 no longer useful, is evidently regarded 

 as a burden. When placed in an 

 aquarium, even if covered with foreign 

 matters, it veiy soon discards them 

 and appears perfectly clean. The up- 

 permost pustule of each row is larger 

 than the others, and forms an inflated 

 vesicle just below each tentacle. The 

 tentacles instead of being very small 

 and numerous, as in the fringeJ-anem- 

 one, are comparatively few, rarely 

 more thon 72 in the largest specimens, 

 but they are large and often more 

 than an inch long. The mouth usual- 

 ly has the form of a cross, with sev- 

 eral prominent folds upon its lips. Its 

 body is usually pale, translucent, olive- 

 green, sometimes approaching flesh- 

 color, and the disk and tentacles have 

 a lighter tint of the same colors, while 

 the tentacles are conspicuously beaded 



with opaque-white, and upon the disk 

 there are usually si.\ or twelve lines 

 radiating from the mouth to the base 

 of the tentacles. Most of these ten- 

 tacles ha\e a white heart-shaped spot 

 upon the inner side of their bases. 



This pretty Actinia used to be very 

 common at Eastport, Me., and has 

 been found at Cape Elizabeth. In 

 the latter locality the specimens were 

 half buried in sand at the bottom of a 

 rocky pool near low water mark. In 

 confinement it expands most freely in 

 the evening. It feeds, like all other 

 species, upon all sorts of mollusca and 

 Crustacea that come within its reach. 

 It brings forth living young, often of 

 considerable size, which emerge at ir- 

 regular intervals from the mouth, 

 sometimes singly, sometimes in large 

 numbers. It does not grow so large 

 as the preceding, the body seldom be- 

 coming more than two inches high and 

 one in diameter, but having more than 

 twice the diameter across the expand- 

 ed tentacle. 



The Red Sea Anemone {Rhodae- 

 tinia Davisii, A gas.) is unquestion- 

 ably the most beautifully colored and 

 showy of all our northern Actinias; but, 

 although very changable in shape, it 

 lacks the elegant forms assumed by 

 other species. The body usually 

 forms, in expansion, a low cylinder, 

 broader than high, with a broad disk; 

 surrounded by a moderate number of 

 large, rather short, tapering or blunt 

 tentacles. The exterior of the body 

 is sometimes nearly smooth, but at 

 other times a few, rather inconspicu- 

 ous warts or suckers scattered over the 

 surface. The shore specimens are 

 mostly mottled with deep brownish 

 red and dull greenish, while the ten- 

 tacles are pinkish banded with opa<]ue- 

 white. The disk is often light green- 



