ORDER POLYPI CARNOSI. 495 
ACTINIA, (proper) 
Are fixed by a broad and flat base. The species most com- 
mon on our coasts are 
Act. Senilis, L. Three inches broad, with a coriaceous, 
unequal, and orange-coloured envelope, and tentacula on two 
ranges, of a moderate length, and usually marked with a rose- 
coloured ring. It keeps principally in the sand, into which 
it instantly sinks back upon the slightest alarm. 
Act. Equina, L. With a soft skin, finely striated; the 
colour usually of a fine purple, often spotted with green ; 
smaller, the tentacula longer, and more numerous than the 
preceding. It covers all the rocks of our coasts of the 
channel, and ornaments them as though they bore the finest 
flowers. 
Actinia Plumosa, Cuv. White, four inches and more in 
breadth ; the edges ofits mouth expand into lobes, all charged 
with innumerable small tentacula. There is an interior rank 
of larger ones. 
Actinia Effeeta. Rond. Lib. xvii. cap. xviii. Ofa clear 
brown, striped longitudinally with whitish; of an elongated 
form, often more narrow towards the bottom ; a smooth skin, 
and numerous tentacula. When it contracts itself, there often 
issue through the mouth some long filaments, which come 
from the ovaries. It attaches itself, in preference, on shells, 
and is extremely common in the Mediterranean. 
THALASSIANTHUS, Ruppel, are actiniz, with ramified ten- 
tacula. (Thal. aster. Ruppel.) 
His DIscosoMA, are some in which the tentacula are 
reduced to nearly nothing by their shortness. (Discos. nummi- 
Sorme, Id.) 
ZOANTHUS, Cuv., 
Have the same fleshy tissue, the same disposition of mouth, 
