A. £. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands; Coral Reefs. 253 
of the tentacles, white radial spots, and a white bar across the disk 
in line with the longer diameter of the mouth and very long direc- 
tive tentacles. Other tentacles were pale grayish green with alter- 
nating half rings or angular spots of white, interrupted along the 
median line by a narrow dark line. The tentacles are nearly always 
spotted on the inside with angular or crescent-shaped spots or half- 
bands of flake-white, alternating on opposite sides, and generally 
there are two odd directive tentacles, longer and larger than the rest, 
and in line with the angles of the mouth; these may be nearly all 
white, or at least have a long stripe of flake-white or rows of white 
spots on the inner surface for about half their length, or only one 
may be thus marked. <A white stripe usually crosses the disk 
between their bases. 
Acontia, in the form of slender white threads, are often emitted 
from pores arranged in two or three transverse rows a short distance 
below the tentacles. The slender tentacles form several (3-5) rows, 
the inner longest ; they are contractile but not retractile. 
The column of the larger specimens is often 2 to 3 inches high 
and up to 1 inch in diameter, with tentacles about 1 to 1.5 inches 
long, but most of those seen were less than half that size. 
One nearly albino specimen was found, with the body pale flesh- 
color, finely specked with flake-white, but the pale yellowish tenta- 
cles still showed 8-12 crescent-shaped spots of flake-white and the 
dark median line. 
According to MeMurrich, this species, as studied by him at the 
Bahamas (1889), has no sphincter muscle. Duerden found a very 
feeble lower one in his Jamaica specimens (1898). But MeMurrich 
described, 1889 (as Aiptasia, sp.), an actinian from Bermuda very 
much like this species in other respects, in which he found two 
sphincter muscles quite distinctly developed, which is contrary to the 
normal conditions in this genus, but has been found, also by him, in 
A. pallida of the American coast—a species for which I proposed 
to establish a genus (Paranthea) in 1869.* 
*Tt is possible that the Bermuda species described (from preserved speci- 
mens) by MceMurrich was really P. pallida, or a similar small species, though 
it has not since been recognized there by others. Otherwise we must suppose 
that A. tagetes varies to a remarkable extent in the development of the sphinc- 
ter muscles,—from none at all to two distinct ones. However my figure 106 
represents a specimen that has a strong constriction at some distance below the 
margin, about in the position where the lower sphincter described by McMur- 
rich was situated, clearly indicating the presence of a somewhat muscular band 
Trans. Conn. Acav., Vou. XII. 17 APRIL, 1906. 
