210 NOTES ON SAGARTIIDiE AND ZOANTHID^ FROM PLYMOUTH. 



Sagartia sphyrodeta, Gosse. 



Specimens were examined from the Asia Shoal, Eeny Rocks, and 

 other localities. They all belonged to the var. Candida of Gosse. His 

 variety XantJio'pis I have not yet met with here, though it occurs on 

 the north Cornish coast. 



Some of the specimens had a pale bluish or glaucous tinge on the 

 column, and I have seen a variety near St. Ives in which this colour 

 predominated on the column in darker and lighter bands. The 

 tentacles, according to Gosse, number 48 (8 + 8 + 16 + 16). Fischer 

 (1874) gives 8 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64. The usual number at Plymouth 

 is 64 (8 + 8 + 16 + 32), but a few have about 100. Their form is 

 changeable. " They are usually spread horizontally, and have their 

 tips bent frequently downwards " (Gosse, p. 73). 



Sometimes they are much inflated, and curve in all directions, and 

 are often very active. Both these conditions are most frequent in 

 those dredged in the deeper parts of the Sound, and in such also the 

 column is more pellucid and the tentacles more extensile than in the 

 littoral form. I have observed one exhibit extraordinary activity, 

 bending all the tentacle tips, and then straightening them again all 

 together and at the same time. 



The lines encircling the tentacle bases, usually dark brown, some- 

 times light purple, or only the inner cycles so encircled. They are 

 frequently irregular, spreading out as a dark coloured area, or forming 

 dark patches at the sides of the tenacles. Acontia freely emitted. 

 Transverse sections showed the ectoderm to be well developed 

 (especially in the oral disk), and the mesogloea, though not markedly 

 developed in the body wall, mesenteries, or tentacles, is also thicker in 

 the oral disk, and the sphincter is strong, and shows numerous small 

 cavities. The longitudinal muscle of the mesenteries well developed, 

 the fibres dendritic. 



Paraphellia expansa, Haddon, 



This species is not uncommon on the Eame-Eddystone grounds, but 

 I have only been able to examine one living specimen from that area, 

 which had been in captivity for some time. When completely con- 

 tracted, 20 mm. in diameter, and much flattened, the base spread out, 

 sometimes smooth, and at others crenulated, the centre slightly 

 elevated and much wrinkled. The form is very changeable, the 

 flattened base being partly or wholly retracted, the column elevated, 

 and the anemone then assumes the turban shape figured by Haddon, 

 but this is rare. 



