ANTHOZOA HELIANTHOIDA. 183 



phere of a fleshy consistence, or elongating themselves into a 

 sort of flabby cylinder that indicates a state of relaxation and 

 indolent repose. 



The Actinia coriacea is the principal species which the 

 anatomist has examined with care,* and it may safely be 

 chosen as the representative of its order, the probability being 

 that the deviations from its structure in the other species and 

 genera are only of secondary consequence. Of the- species 

 mentioned Mr. Teale has given a very elaborate anatomy,f 

 more correct and minute than any hitherto published, but the 

 sketch to suit our design, must be of a more general character. 



The body of the Heliantho'ida may be compared to a trun- 

 cated cone or short cylinder, seated on a flat plain base, while 

 the opposite end is dimpled in the centre with the oral aper- 

 ture, and garnished with variously figured tentacula which 

 originate from a space (peristome) between the proper lip and 

 the free somewhat thickened border of the disk. In a state of 

 contraction the mouth is closed, the tentacula are shortened, 

 and the whole concealed by this border, being drawn like a 

 curtain over them, leaving a mere depression on the top. The 

 mouth leads by a very short and wide passage into a large 

 stomach, which is a membranous bag puckered internally with 

 numerous plaits, and divided in a perpendicular direction into 

 two equal halves, by a deep smooth furrow with cartilaginous 

 sides, as was first remarked by Reaumur.} There is no intes- 

 tine, nor any other visible exit from the stomach than the 

 mouth, by which the undigested remains of the food are 

 ejected, always enveloped in a large quantity of a clear glairy 

 fluid. But in a state of expansion and of hunger, many kinds 



* M. Delle Chiaje has, it seems, anatomized several other species, but I cannot 

 read his work, which is written in the Italian language. For a similar reason I have 

 not been able fully to avail myself of the writings of German naturalists. 



t " On the Anatomy of Actinia Coriacea, by Thomas Pridgin Teale," in Transac- 

 tions of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, vol. i. 



I " They (the furrows) are produced on each side by the firm adherence of the 

 gastric membrane to a pair of very dense, fleshy, but narrow leaflets, throughout 

 their whole extent, or, in other words, from the top to the bottom of their internal 

 border. These depressions divide the animal into two lateral halves, constituting a 

 bilateral symmetry in Actinia, as has been observed by M. Agassiz in other supposed 

 radiated animals." Teale in loc. cit. 102. But in Actinia plumosa the channel or 

 furrow exists on one side only. 



