292 
capnead.t:. 
The expanded disk, with the opaque white tentacle- heads 
scattered over it, looks like what the ladies call “ spotted 
mnslin ; ” while, under a lens, the tentacle-stems resemble 
lace, or figured blonde. 
Around Torquay the species exists in much variety. 
On the shadowed sides of the perpendicular wall-like rocks, 
near Meadfoot, I have seen, at extreme low water, countless 
groups, displaying their lovely little coronets within reach 
of my hand, as I was pushed in a small boat through the 
narrow passes of the islets. Dr. E. P. Wright finds it in 
amazing profusion, “ covering whole rock-pools,” at Crook- 
haven. He says that some of these expanded to nearly 
an inch in diameter, — dimensions which far exceed those 
of such as I have seen. They have been occasionally found 
on roots of Laminaria, and Mr. Cocks has taken a number, 
half-digested, from the stomach of a Plaice. 
They feed readily on minute morsels of raw meat; which, 
however, must be laid on the disk with great caution, or 
the animal will close. In taking-in the morsel the Cory- 
nactis does not protrude the lips to embrace it, nor close 
the tentacles over it, like the Actinice, but dilates the 
mouth slowly and uniformly, until the lips form a circle of 
great width, nearly as wide, indeed, as the disk, within 
which the visceral cavity, like a broad saucer, is seen, with 
the coiled craspeda lining its sides and bottom. Into this 
gaping cavity the morsel is drawn, and then the lips 
gi'adually contract and embrace it, finally protruding in a 
pouting cone. This is exactly the manner of Caryophyllia 
Smithii. 
There is much in the appearance of this animal which 
agrees with Caryophyllia: the colours and tlieir distribu- 
tion, the general translucency of the tissues, the form and 
crenation of the mouth, and, in particular, the shape, 
arrangement, and minute structure of the tentacles, are 
