VeiTill, JVbtes on Madiata. 411 



ground, with the tentacles a dull purple, the disk between the tenta- 

 cles and the mouth light grayish green, the mouth flesh-color, and the 

 under h^urface of the base scarlet," — J. Drayton. 



Height 2 to 25 inches; diameter at middle 2*25 ; diameter of disk 3. 



San Lorenzo I., off Callao, Peru, — U. S. Expl. Exp. 



Tliis species may, quite possibly, prove to be only a A^ariation of the 

 preceding one, depending on locality, state of expansion, etc. It ap- 

 pears to differ principally in having shorter and more numerous tenta- 

 cles and a less dilated disk. 



Subfamily, Sagartin.e Ven-ill. 



Actinines perforees (section) Edw. andHairae, Corall., i, p. 278, 1857. 

 Sagartiadm (family) Gosse, 1858 ; Actinologia Britannica, p. 9, 1860. 

 Sagartidm (subfamily) Verrill, Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. History, i, p, 21, 1864. 

 Sagartinm (subfamily) Y., Proc. Essex Inst., vol. v, p. 322, 1868; ditto, toI. vi, 1869. 



Column very changeable in form, usually capable of great extension 

 into long, cylindrical, or pillar-like forms, or of contracting into a low, 

 flattened, conical shape. Surfoce in full expansion mostly smooth, not 

 verrucose, often with retractile suckers, which are not conspicuous ex- 

 cept while in use ; in contraction the surface is usually covered with 

 close transverse or reticulate wrinkles. Walls j^erforated by special 

 openings {cinclidoe) through which thread-like, stinging organs {acon- 

 tla) are ejected when the animal is irritated, sometimes in great profu- 

 sion, in other cases very sparingly and reluctantly. Margin simple or 

 nearly so, usually without special appendages {N'einactis is an excep- 

 tion). Tentacles usually numerous, generally slender and elongated, 

 highly contractile. 



Species can usually be recognized as members of this subfamily by 

 the smooth, thin walls, usually showing the internal lamelUie, and by 

 their perforations and the existence of acontia. But the latter char- 

 acters are frequently overlooked, even in living specimens, and are 

 generally difficult to detect in specimens contracted in alcohol, except 

 in a few genera where the borders of the pores are raised (Adamsia). 

 Most of the species referred by Edwards and Haime to JParactis, and 

 described as lacking perforations and all appendages of the walls, are 

 really Sagartians in which the perforations have been formerly over- 

 looked. Therefore I have here referred several similar species of sim- 

 ple Actinians to this group, although the lateral pores and acontia 

 have not actually been observed. 



