TRIBE I. ASTR^EACEA. 153 



disk is purple, with strong radiating lines ; another variety has a 

 green ground with ochreous tubercles. J. DRAYTON. 



This species resembles the prcetextum, and was found, like that, bur- 

 rowing in the sand. The body is covered with large tuberculiform 

 suckers, to which fragments of shells and pebbles adhere; the delicate 

 foliated appendage's look like embroidery, and one of a brown tint 

 alternates with three white ones. The tentacles are subtriangular, 

 the outside being slightly concave. Specimens were seen extending 

 to more than three inches in diameter. J. P. COUTHOUY. 



METRIDIUM MUSCOSUM. (Dray ton.) 



M. valde depressum, 1" altum, et 2" crassum, lateribus per vesicula 

 suctoria armatis; disco margine vixplicato, leviter radiato; tentaculis 

 subulatis fere |" tongis, validis, 3-seriatis, appendidbusfrondescentibus 

 undique sparsis, vix 3'" superantibus. 



Much depressed, an inch high, and 2 inches in diameter; sides fur- 

 nished with suctorial vesicles; disk faintly radiated, scarcely plicate 

 at the margin ; tentacles subulate, in three series, nearly | of an 

 inch long, stout, and scattered among them are numerous fron- 

 descent appendages, not over three lines in length. 



Plate 5, fig. 42, the expanded animal of the natural size ; 43, the 

 same, as it lies embedded in the sand. 



From sandy pools among the rocks, left by the tide, Wollongong, 

 Illawarra, New South Wales. Exp. Exp. 



The animal becomes quite thin when much dilated, and the base 

 spreads to about two and a half inches in diameter. The body has a 

 yellowish sage-green colour, with longitudinal and transverse markings 

 of brown, and it is covered, not very thickly, with suckers, to which 

 fragments of shells, pebbles, &c., adhere; the suckers project consi- 

 derably, and are of a purplish-brown colour. There are three ranges 

 of subulate tentacles, of the same colour as the body, and about three- 

 fourths of an inch long ; the middle range is opaque, and is marked 

 by four white and four umber-coloured bands. Near the base of each 

 tentacle, the animal is furnished with short leafy appendages, more 



39 



