256 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 



four large specimens which were projecting from the wall 

 of the pier, on which they had fastened four or five feet 

 under water, I was much struck with the graceful scolloped 

 appearance which the fringe had assumed, and I could not 

 imagine what they were. I had to rest satisfied, however, 

 with a distant view, as the water was too deep, and my 

 time too short, for attempting to reach them. The next 

 time I fell in with it was in a cleft of a rock in a small 

 islet off Saltcoats. The full-grown specimens have the 

 power of altering the number of the lobes forming the plu- 

 mose margin of the disc. In young specimens the fringe 

 does not become lobed. 



Most opportunely, just as I was closing this description, 

 Major Martin told me that he had got a magnificent Ac- 

 tinia from the island of Arran; and when I saw it in a 

 gold-fish vase, which it almost filled, I was delighted to 

 find that it was the finest specimen of the Actinia plnmosa, 

 or the sea-carnation, I had ever seen. It is now in my pos- 

 session, and my daughter Isabella is at present employed in 

 making a drawing of it, which, with the Major's helping 

 hand, will form, I trust, a beautiful frontispiece for my book. 



In some respects it differs from any I have seen alive, 

 and it is different, also, from the one of which there is such 



