222 ANTHOZOA HELIANTHOIDA. 



tentacula, three times as long as the outer, placed at some distance 

 from each other : the outer forms a circle of numerous shorter ten- 

 tacula, about a quarter of an inch in length. The colour of the 

 body is dark brown with blue stripes, which bifurcate towards the 

 base. The tentacula are paler, as also the disc, which is ornamented 

 with bright blue stripes radiating from the mouth." E. .Forbes. 



13. A. VERMICULARIS, body elongate, cylindrical, smooth ; 

 tentacula numerous, multiserial, those of the marginal circle 

 twice as long as those of the mouth and less numerous. E. 

 Forbes. 



PLATE XXXVIII. FIG. 25. 



Actinia vermicularis, Forbes MSS. 



Hob. On shells. " Dredged in 50 fathoms by Mr. MacAndrew and 

 myself, between Sombro Head (Zetland) and Fair Island : also in 

 80 fathoms w. of Zetland," E. Forbes. 



" Body cylindrical, long, smooth, greyish pink : neck not swollen, 

 opake white : disc white, bearing an external circle of 24 long ten- 

 tacula which are pale fulvous, and a few (about six) shorter white 

 ones outside of them ; also an inner circle of two or three-ranked 

 short white tentacula (50 or 60) surrounding the mouth, which is 

 transverse at the bottom of a brown funnel-shaped cavity in the 

 centre of the circle of shorter tentacula. Tentacula retractile. Base 

 not expanded. Animal sluggish, and when contracted and not 

 attached, looking more like a planarian worm than an Actinia. 

 Body T \ long : larger tentacula 0^. 



" Gives out a vivid phosphorescent light when irritated in the 

 dark." E. Forbes. 



f f Skin with porous warts. 



Obs. This section corresponds with the genus CRIBRINA of Ehren- 

 berg, which I have not adopted, because the value of the character 

 on which it rests is yet to be tested. Of one species I have men- 

 tioned that it has both warted and smooth varieties, and I have 

 seen individuals which were glandular on one side of the body and 

 smooth on the other. But recent observations cast a doubt on the 

 accuracy of these statements, for I now know that an individual 

 apparently quite smooth on being taken from its habitat can, 

 and does, become warted when placed in a basin of sea-water. I 

 have repeatedly seen this change, produced evidently by a protru- 

 sion of the warts which had been hidden in the mucous skin. The 



