THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZIiNE OF iNATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 86. FEBRUARY 1855. 



VII. — Some Account of the Actimsidgs found upon the Coast near 

 Teignmouth, Devon. By Robert C. R. Jordan, M.B. Loud., 

 Med. Tutor and Professor of Comparative Anatomy, Queen's 

 Coll. Birmingham. 



During the month of April of the present year (1854), aided 

 by other members of my family, I undertook to investigate the 

 various species of Actinice and the allied genera found upon the 

 coast near Teignmouth. Although several kinds were already 

 known to us by sight, we were fortunate enough to find more 

 species than we had anticipated. The part of the coast examined 

 extended from the small rocks between the beach at Dawlish 

 and the Warren on the one side, to the rocks bounding the 

 Torre Abbey Sands on the other. This includes rather more 

 than ten miles of the coast. The actual localities explored 

 within this district were but few, and none of these could be 

 looked upon as exhausted ; indeed it would not surprise me in 

 the least to find at a future visit fresh species even in those very 

 portions of the coast to which we have given the most attention. 

 The hunting grounds were formed, in all except one place, by 

 masses of red sandstone, which, detached at some former time 

 from the cliffs above, are now overgrown with Fuci, and sub- 

 merged at high water ; some, indeed, being only exposed to the 

 air in a low spring tide. In the single exception to this, the 

 rocks on the jNIeadfoot Sands near Torquay, the only difference 

 was the substitution of masses of limestone for the red sandstone 

 of the other localities. 



The first species I shall notice is the very common Actinia 

 Mesembryanthemum. The division of the genus Actinia into 

 two groups, in one of which the skin is smooth, and in the other 

 studded with porous warts, is useful in determining the various 

 kinds ; it will therefore be adopted in the following sketch. 



Ann. i:^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser.2. Vol.w. " 6 



