Happon—TZhe Actiniaria of Torres Straits. 491 
of the oral disk; the central area round the mouth uniform greenish, with irre- 
gular spots. 
(Specimen C).—Column creamy; basal portion of the lobes yellowish, much 
brighter in colour aborally ; tentacles cindery grey ; oral disk slaty green ; the 
peripheral portion of the twenty-four radial bands of a brighter yellow than the 
centripetal. 
(Specimen D).—Column buff; lobes bright yellowish green; tentacles bright 
green, yellower towards their tips; oral disk brownish buff; the twenty-four 
radial bands creamy yellow, irregularly spotted with dark grey; cesophagus 
grey. 
(Specimen E).—Column uniform pale grey green, with vertical paler lines 
corresponding to the insertion of the mesenteries. 
(Specimen F).—Uniform grey green. 
Dimensions.—Height of column, when fully extended, 200-230 mm. (8 to 9 
inches) ; diameter of column 90 mm. or more (34 inches or more) ; diameter of 
corona over 300 mm. (over 1 foot); lobes 75-100 mm. (3-4 inches) in length. 
Locality.—F ringing reef, in tidal pools exposed to direct sunlight, Mer ; 
February, 1889. Cape York and Western Australia (Lacepede Is.) S.-K. 
In the foregoing description I have copied out my field-notes which referred 
to specimens actually before me. Saville-Kent (1893, p. 34) says their stinging 
power is nearly as powerful as the ordinary stinging-nettle, the rash persisting 
for several days. I have also been stung; but it did not affect me to the same 
degree. The same author (p. 34) found it “ most abundantly in the pools of 
water left on the sandy flats at half or even one-quarter ebb.” At Somerset, 
Cape York, the highly contractile column was imbedded in sand for 18 inches or 
more; the pedal disk was attached to a stone. ‘The colours are lacking in 
brilliancy, being chiefly represented by varying shades of light brown and white, 
which are probably conducive to its advantage by assimilating it to the tint of its 
sandy bed. When fully extended, the compound tentacles are elevated to a 
height of eight or ten inches, and bear a remarkable resemblance to certain of the 
delicately branching, light brown seaweeds that abound in its vicinity.” On 
p. 146, Saville-Kent says that ‘‘the tentacles, or their arm-like homologues, are 
twenty-four in number.” Evidently he made this statement from an inspection 
of the photograph that he published (Pl. xxii., fig. a), in which the outermost 
cycle of smaller lobes is not shown. 
From the illustration given by Sayille-Kent, there can be little doubt that he 
had this species in view, and that he should have called it A. arborewm, stead of 
A alcyonoideum. 
4B2 
