316 Miscellaneous . 



white. The tentacles of the first row are pellucid white, with the 

 capitate extremities dead white ; the tentacles in the three remaining 

 rows are also pellucid white, in parts tinged faintly with a reddish 

 hue ; the capitate extremities have a powdered white edge. The 

 mouth is of a darker yellow than the body. 



This species does not appear to change its shape very much, thus 

 differing from the other known British species ; the only change I 

 have noticed was that from a state of contraction to one of expan- 

 sion, from the button shape to nearly a true cylinder, of pretty equal 

 dimensions at both extremities, with a constriction immediately under 

 the crenated margin. It easily adheres by its base to any substance, 

 and may be said to be rather lively, often continuing for some time 

 constantly opening and closing. 



It also throws out lobes in the manner of other ActhuadcE, and 

 these at times completely cover the disk. If touched it instantly 

 contracts, but does not turn sulky, commencing immediately to re- 

 open, which it does very slowly, and this by exserting the tentacles 

 on one quarter of the disk before it begins to exsert those on the 

 other three quarters. The tentacles have not the motion of Actinia 

 or Anthea. I dropped a piece of meat on the disk when opened ; it 

 remained there some little time without being taken into the stomach ; 

 after some time the animal wished to rid itself of the meat ; it then 

 slowly bent over, and the meat rolled or floated across the tentacles 

 without being impeded by them. When taken this animal was per- 

 fectly smooth and free from all foreign substances, such as sand and 

 gravel. 



The appearance of this Corynactis reminds me of a coronet, the 

 heads of the outer row of tentacles bearing a resemblance to the balls 

 on the edge of the coronet, and this more so than in either C. viridis 

 or C. Alhiannii ; and I should have proposed the specific name of 

 coronulis, did it not partly apply to the other species. 



Corijnuctis heterocera, it will have been seen by the description, 

 differs very materially from the other British species, in the form of 

 the tentacles, the colour, the superior size, the coriaceous texture, its 

 general immutability of form, and in having no foreign substance 

 attached to the epidermis when caught, as in C AUmannii. I have 

 named it heterocera in reference to its most prominent distinction 

 from the other species in its differently shaped tentacles. 



Hab. Dredged in Weymouth Bav, in 8 fathoms of water, on a 

 gravelly bottom, Sept. 10, 1853.— Proc. Zool. Soc. Nov. 8, 1853. 



On the Species confounded uiider the name of Laminaria digitata, 



with some Observations on the (jenus Laminaria. 



By M. A. Le Jolis. 



The author has studied for several years the structure and deve- 

 lopment of the various forms of the so-called Laminaria diyitata 

 growing in the neighbourhood of Cherbourg. He states that his 

 observations agree with those of Clouston made at the Orkneys, and 

 considers that, instead of a single species as admitted by most modern 



