86 
SAGAIiTIAD^. 
and sea-Aveeds;” but added no other information to tlie 
description of Muller, which he quoted in the original 
Latin. An expression in this, Avhich had puzzled me not 
a little, became graphically descriptiA'e when I saw the 
living animal. Muller says that the tentacles “ seem com- 
posed of an eye furnished with exceedingly slender rings 
croAvded together,” — a comparison which at first seems 
little applicable to such organs. But, in fact, they are 
frequently contracted into A^ery Ioav cones or Avarts ; Avhen, 
vicAved from aboA^e, they present the appearance of a 
number of fine rings surrounding the central point, very 
much like the eye-spots in a butterfly’s AAdng. (See left- 
hand figure aboA’e.) 
The colony in my possession consists of one of the size 
and character that I have described above, and several 
minute ones around it, none of them so large as a small 
pea. Since I have had them, tAVO or three more liaA^e been 
produced from the largest, from the size of a grain of sand 
to that of a poppy-seed. I believe all of these are the 
result of a spontaneous separation of fragments from the 
base, and not of a generatiA^e process. The most minute 
displays its circle of tiny tentacles. 
The outline of the base is exceedingly A^arlable : it 
projects in ragged promontories and rounded points, Avhich 
continually, though sloAvly, change their form and relatiA'e 
proportions. From some of these, minute fragments sepa- 
rate, Avhich soon become independent animals. It is 
possible that the Actinia lacerata. of Sir J. Dalyell may be 
this species ; but I rather incline to identify it Avith our 
vicluata. The sinuous outline on which he relied rather 
indicates a condition than a species. 
Thoiigh the short conical form of the tentacles is charac- 
teristic, yet occasionally they assume a lengthened slender 
shape, their markings becoming evanescent. • JMiiller 
