THE PLUMOSE ANEMONE. 
21 
intersepts, by the action of tlie cilia with which the inte- 
rior membranes are covered. Occasionally, such a spiral 
fragment is driven into the interior of a tentacle, which is 
indeed but a continuation of the interseptal chambers — and 
here it is hurled to and fro in the ciliary currents, now 
shooting forward to the tip, then slowly retrograding, then 
again whirled towards the tip, Avhich it appears to make the 
most strenuous efforts to reach ; the combination of the 
twofold ciliary action, — that which is dependent on the cilia 
that line the interior of the tentacle, and that which results 
from its own richly ciliated surface, — imparting a vacilla- 
tion and ever- varying impetus to its movements that may 
easily be mistaken for independent life. I have myself 
fallen into this error.* 
The proper habitat of dianilms is the coralline zone. 
The trawlers in AVest Bay and Torbay bring up populous 
colonies from a depth of twenty fathoms. In AVey mouth 
Bay it is specially abundant ; and yet this apparent pre- 
eminence may be rather due to the fact that this celebrated 
locality lias been so perseveringly dredged. Be it so or not, 
I can testify to the profusion with which the bottom of this 
bay, from the deep sea of the offing to three fathoms or less, 
is stocked with this fine Anemone. The oyster and scallop- 
banks of Portland and Brixham are favourite haunts. It 
is the habit of the species to live in society ; and both the 
dredge and the trawl are constantly bringing to light 
clustered groups, as well as single individuals. Family 
groups are sometimes very numerous, as many as twenty 
being not uncommonly crowded on a single oyster-shell, f 
* Devonsh. Coast, 116. 
t Dr. Battersby informs me that, in the summer of 1856, one of the 
trawlers brought into Torquay a water-logged board, about two feet long 
by one broad, on which were crowded between four and five hundred 
specimens of A. dianthus, of all sizes, but a considerable proportion of 
them large. What was curious was, that all on one side the board were 
white, all on the other orange. 
