THE BEADLET. 
181 
by no means unusual to see examples of the red varieties, 
in wliicli the spherules are pale red, — the blue pigment 
being defective. 
The name Actinia, originally applied to the whole race 
of Sea- Anemones, is derived from uktIv, a ray ; the specific 
appellation, mesemhryanihemum, is the name of the fig- 
marigold, so called from its opening at noon, {fiearj/M^pia, 
= fjbia-o^, r]p,epa, mid-day) : the term headlet alludes to the 
marginal beads. 
As no species is more abundant, nor more easily pro- 
cured than this, since it affects the most exposed rocks, 
and does not seek the protection of hollows, so none is 
more easily reconciled to captivity, and few are more 
beautiful. It requires no special treatment ; a surface for 
the support of its base, and water sufficient to cover it, 
are enougli ; nor is it essential to its existence that the 
latter should be very pure, for it will continue to drag on 
life when its fellows have died out. Yet few species more 
immediately resent negligence of this kind, or more grate- 
fully express their appreciation of a pm*e and limpid 
element. Widely as the species is distributed in a state 
of freedom, we scarcely ever see it except where the water 
is habitually clear. It is a curious fact, for which I am 
indebted to Mr. E. L. Williams, jun., that “ the Mersey 
estuary is the only place on our coasts in which he has 
not found this species;” which he attributes to the foul- 
ness of the water. This absence would be less remarkable, 
were it not that Tealia crassicorms is abundant there ; but 
Actinia is clean and Tealia is dirty in its habits. In the 
plete ; that is to say, in the large individuals where 1 92 tentacles or there- 
abouts may be counted. He has recognised also that these pouches 
communicate directly with the sub-tentacular chambers of the first cycles ; 
and that they contain little muscular fibre, but cai’ry navicular thread-cells 
of various forms, and of which the interior thread is indistinct, together 
with transparent vesicles, and pigment-globules ” — Mii.ne-Edwards, Hist. 
Corallalres, i. 240. 
