ASTRjEACEA. 
ANTHEADjE. 
THE TRUMPLET. 
Aiptasia CoucMi. 
Plate V. fig. 3. 
Specific Character. Body smoke-brown ; disk marked with pale blue 
lines. 
? A ctinia biserialis. Forbes, Ann. N. H. Ser. 1. v. 182 ; pi. iii. Johnston, 
Brit. Zooph. Ed. 2. i. 221 ; pi. xxxvLii. fig. 1. 
Cocks, Rep. Cornw. Pol. Soc. 1851, 6 ; pi. i. 
fig. 18. 
Anihea Couchii. Ibid. Rep. Cornw. Pol. Soc. 1851, 11 ; pi. ii. fig. 30. 
Aiptasia amacha. Gosse, Annals Nat. Hist. Ser. 3. L 416. 
GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 
Form. 
Base. Adherent to rocks, I’eadily detached ; dilated, but smaller than 
the middle of the column. 
Column. Slender just above the base, enlarging upwards, dilating at the 
summit into a wide hemispheric cup or trumpet-shaped disk ; four or five 
times higher than wide ; the form susceptible of great and rapid changes 
from irregular distension. Margin formed by the outer row of tentacles. 
Substance pulpy. Surface minutely corrugated in the ordinary condition, 
but smooth when fully distended, pierced with loop-holes ; without visible 
suckers, yet capable of adhesion. 
Bisk. Thin and membranous, greatly expanded as a broad concave cup. 
Outline circular, but lax, and often imdulate, or even revolute. Radii 
strongly marked. 
Tentacles, Arranged in four rows : the first row containing six, set 
at half radius, remote from each other, and from the second row ; when 
fully extended, an inch and a- half long ; the other rows diminish gradually, 
the outermost being about half an inch in length. All, especially those of 
the first row, very lax, flexuous, frequently thrown into sinuous curves, 
perforate with a lai’ge terminal aperture. 
Mouth. Lip thin. Throat irregularly furrowed. Stomach- wall occa- 
sionally protruded. Two gonidia, scarcely rising into tubercles. 
