MARINE MISCELLANEA. 223 



or shell fulcrum to which it is affixed, while the tentacular disc is expanded on the 

 sand surface. The colour of the normally concealed column is usually a bright scarlet, 

 while the tentacles are mottled with short alternating bars of greys, browns, or olive 

 green. A noteworthy peculiarity in this species is the circumstance that the individual 

 tentacles often present a distinctly nodular or moniliform contour, each node coinciding 

 with the alternating colour bands. The anemone, moreover, in its ordinary condition 

 of expansion shows a marked tendency to pucker its oral disc and radiating tentacles 

 into six symmetrically even folds. Both of these conspicuous characteristics are dis- 

 tinctly shown in the photographs from life of this species previously cited, as also in 

 the smaller illustration representing two closely approximated individuals reproduced 

 on the preceding page. This fine anemone, which is apparently referable to the genus 

 Condylactis, has been met with by the writer at Port Darwin and also on the 

 Queensland coast. The expanded disc of the largest individual observed measured 

 seven inches in diameter, and the height of the elevated column but little short 

 of the same measurement. 



Another sand-frequenting Anemone that occurs under conditions substantially 

 identical with those recorded of the foregoing type is photographically depicted in 

 the figures on the next page by two examples in varying conditions of extension. This 

 Anemone is remarkable for its stinging properties, which equal those of a nettle, and 

 is apparently identical with the type originally described by Quoy and Gaimard, 

 under the title of Actinodendron alcyonidium. The individuals here figured were 

 obtained at the Lacepede Islands. They were of a much more brilliant tint than 

 those met with by the writer on the Queensland coast, of which an illustration and 

 description are given in his volume on the " Great Barrier Beef." The previously 

 observed Queensland specimens were in all instances of mixed light brown and whitish 

 tints, and in such respect closely coincided with the hue of their sandy surroundings. 

 The Western Australian examples bore in their native element a much nearer resem- 

 blance to growing tufts of seaweeds, in which tints of green, yellow, and light orange 

 red were variously interblended. These colours, in fact, as exhibited by the animal in 

 a condition of semi-extension as depicted in figure A. of the two photographic 

 reproductions on page 224, were wonderfully suggestive of a bunch of mignonette. 

 The shafts of the tentacles, in pursuance of this simile, were bright green, the 

 secondary subdivisions a pale yellowish-green, and the terminal, finely separated 

 tentacular filaments, of that peculiar orange-red hue characteristic of the ordinary 

 growth of the flower with which comparisons have been instituted. The smooth 



