THE VESTLET. 
269 
Colour. 
Mouth, A transverse slit ; lip minutely furrowed, not projecting. 
Investing Tube. Cylindrical, much wider than the animal, which is 
loosely invested by it without attachment in any part, papery or felty in 
texture, thick and soft, 
composed of many layers, 
the outer of which pre- 
sent ragged foliations. 
The tube can easily be 
detached, w’hen the ani- 
mal immediately begins 
to form a new one, by 
throwing off the material 
from the entire surface 
of the column ; this at 
first is adhesive, tena- 
cious, and very tough, 
pellucid, but gradually 
becomes milky, and finally 
opaque, entangling mud 
and sand in its substance. 
It is wholly composed of 
cnidce, the discharged 
ecthorcea of which, in in- 
calculable numbers and 
of great length, inter- 
twine and form a sort of 
felt. 
Column. Pale buff or 
whitish, gradually becom- 
ing rich chestnut brown 
at the summit. 
Disk. Pellucid white. 
Tentacles. First series 
maronne or chocolate-brown at the foot, above which pellucid whitish, with 
chestnut bands. Second series dark maronne. 
CERIANTHU8 
without its tube. 
Size. 
Length seven inches, under strong irritation contracting to two; general 
diameter of column one-fourth of an inch ; of disk half an inch ; expanse 
of flower one inch and a half. 
