222 



THE NATURALIST IN AUSTRALIA. 



these thickly clustered tentacles that the commensal fish nestled for shelter, as within 

 the more voluminous tentacular folds of the isolated Discosomte. 



This socially consorting sea anemone was found on closer examination to 

 correspond very nearly with a new species observed in Torres Straits, and figured 

 and described by the writer in his " Great Barrier " volume under the title of 



Physobrachia Douglasi. The 

 most marked peculiarity of 

 this type was the contour of 

 the tentacles, which in their 

 condition of full extension 

 were inflated in a bladder- 

 like manner at their distal 

 extremities. The shafts of 

 the tentacles of the Western 

 Australian examples were 

 usually either a transparent 

 dark myrtle green or a clear 

 brown, and the inflated ex- 

 tremities pure white or palest 

 lilac with a minute crimson 

 apical tip. A fairly success- 

 ful photograph of a small 

 area of a reef crevice thickly populated with this particular anemone, necessarily 

 taken vertically through the surface of the water, is reproduced in the accompanying 

 illustration. This anemone group represents one of many that were observed on the 

 reefs at Gantheaume Point, Roebuck Bay, but with which no fish commensals, as at 

 the Lacepede Islands, were found consorted. 



A characteristic Sea 

 Anemone that was obtained 

 by the writer in Beagle Bay, 

 Western Australia, midway 

 between King's Sound and 

 Roebuck Bay, is illustrated 

 by the photographs repro- 

 duced in the upper moiety of cod,jiaet> />. 



W. SaMlt-Kent, Photo. 

 BLADDEH-TENTACLED ANEMONES, I'hysobrachitt Sp. ONE-THIRD NATURAL SIZE. 



Plate XXXIX. Unlike the 

 preceding forms, it is not a 

 rock or reef dwelling species, 

 but takes up its abode on 

 the sandy foreshores, having a 

 long cylindrical column, which 

 extends five or six inches 

 through the sand to a stone 



