THE SNAKE -LOCKED ANEMONE. 
107 
and is especially abundant on a sandy bottom in the laminarian zone, where 
it appears to be nearly or quite free, since it is washed ashore by hundreds 
after a gale. 
Variety. 
The only distinctly marked variety that I have noticed besides those 
diversities of the general tint that I include in 
a. Aleurops ,* — the mealy-faced condition above described, — is 
Melanops which has a broad well-defined band of deep black, 
crossing the disk and tentacles ; just as if a dash of ink had been struck 
across the w'hole flower ; including in its breadth three or four tentacles 
of each row on each side. The band crosses at right-angles to the line of 
the mouth ; the gonidial radii of which are white. 
Sagartia viduata is somewhat liable to be confounded 
with troglodytes ; and some varieties of the latter approach 
it very nearly, especially when closed. But an experienced 
eye will seldom be deceived ; the tint of viduata is a warmer 
brown, generally mealy, or speckled ; that of troglodytes 
tends to drab, smoky brown, or olive, and is not speckled : 
the sti'ipes of troglodytes, when present, are closer, generally 
naiTOwer, and rarely extend far from the base ; the suckers, 
too, which are so obvious and so constantly used in troglo- 
dytes, are inconspicuous in viduata, and rarely used for 
attachment. Then, when expanded, the peculiar pattern 
of each disk respectively does not merge into the other, 
though in troglodytes it is apt to become evanescent : the 
tentacles in this latter very rarely show obscure lateral 
lines; in viduata these marks are constant and conspicuous: 
the more slender form of these organs, and their tendency 
to assume irregular curves, in viduata, are also a very good 
distinction. 
I have no hesitation in identifying the species which we 
get so abundantly in Torbay, and wliich I have described 
above, with Mr. Price’s anguicoma ; though that gentleman 
has not noticed tlie characteristic tentacle-lines. Its re- 
• ’'kXfupov, meal ; the face. 
+ M€\as, black ; coij/, the face. 
