172 
ACTlNIADi^:. 
an orifice, which opens and dilates occasionally, some 
time after the animal has fed.” * This fact, however, if 
fact it he, is confirmed hy no other observer that I am 
aware of. 
The integuments of the column seem to be imperforate : 
this is certainly the case in the genus Actinia; and in 
Phymactis, though the evidence is of a negative character, 
there is no reason to believe that it is otherwise. Tlie 
character of the surface varies according to two very dis- 
tinct types. In Actinia it is remarkably smooth, soft, and 
fine ; in Phymactis it is roughened with strong and coarse 
warts. These diversities manifest the osculant position 
of the group; for while the former genus shows a close 
affinity with the Antheadce, the latter takes no less firm 
a hold upon the Bnnodidm. It is interesting to find an 
exotic species (the A. iirimula of Draytonf) with marginal 
spherules and a smooth skin, which emits long filaments 
from the month. Here, then, we have the representative 
of the Sagartiadai. 
As regards Geographical Distribution, the Family is 
extensively spread ; the two principal genera representing 
it respectively in the northern and southern hemispheres. 
Actinia ranges from the Ked Sea, through the IMediter- 
ranean, over the western coasts of Europe, and the isles of 
the North Atlantic. Phymactis is widely distributed over 
the shores of both sides of the South Pacific, and of the 
South Atlantic, reaching a little way north of the Equator, 
being represented by no less tlian three species at the Cape 
de Verd Isles, where, it is curious to observe, it meets 
* Rare Auim. of Scotl. ; 203. 
t Daua, Zoopli. 134 ; pi. ii. figs. 12 — 15. At least it is thus represented 
in one of Mr. Dana’s beautiful figures, though no allusion is made to the 
peculiarity in the text. M. Milne- Edwards has made of it his genus 
Ncmaclit, but with a wholly gratuitous assumption of characters. 
