84 Prof. R. C. R. Jordan on Actiniadse 



did not possess " the three rows of min\ite white tubercles on 

 the oral disc externally/' as described by Mr. Cocks. 



It was found not very far from high water mark, but com- 

 pletely buried beneath the sand. 



3. A. Troglodytes, 



Very abundant, and apparently found all along the coast ; 

 three or four may generally be seen in every rock-pool ; its time 

 of expansion is the light and sunshine. The tentacles and oral 

 disc are the only parts usually visible, and these are seen stud- 

 ding the bottoms of the little shallow pools like stars ; but if the 

 Anemone be touched, it disappears entirely. Their bodies are 

 either buried in the sand, or else hidden amongst the small 

 mussels which coat the rocks. If taken off by a wedge and 

 hammer carefully, so as to leave their base still fixed to the 

 stone, they will live veiy well in confinement. It would be a 

 slander upon those we have kept to say that they rarely expand, 

 as they are generally fully open during the daytime ; nor are 

 they inactive, often shifting their position. 



The body of this Actinia is gray, with sometimes a very shght 

 tinge of olive, sometimes almost dirty-white; always marked 

 with lighter longitudinal stripes, which radiate from the oral 

 aperture to the disc. When contracted it assumes a beehive 

 shape, but it has the power of becoming more flat than this. 



In expansion, the ground colour of the part within the rays 

 is white ; the oral aperture either oval or round, with a narrow 

 buff margin ; outside this is a circlet of white dots (in those we 

 counted, twelve in number) ; each of these has a dark border 

 which makes them conspicuous. From these seemed to radiate 

 the first row of tentacles, and from the interspaces a second and 

 deeper row arise. Outside these dots is a white ring, broad and 

 margined by another circlet of buff, bordered by a line of black, 

 outside which is another broad ray of white, forming the base of 

 the free portion of the tentacles. The remaining portion of 

 these are of the same gray as the body, except that they are 

 slightly lighter towards the tip. The markings do not always 

 follow the exact pattern here given, but are subject to slight 

 variety. The tentacles are thick in proportion to the size of the 

 Anemone, and nearly equal the body in length. 



In the description given by Dr. Johnston, the tentacles are 

 said to be " in two not very regular cncles -j" they appear to me 

 to be rather quadriserial ; but (as pointed out by Holland in the 

 ' Annales des Sciences ') in any species of Actinia with nume- 

 rous tentacula, they are often not exactly on the same plane, so 

 that it is almost impossible to say how many rows they do form. 



