76 BY THE DEEP SEA. 



Dr. Andrew Wilson, in the days of his youth, desirous of 

 emulating Mr. Gosse's example, cooked a specimen of the 

 Dahlia Wartlet, but the result was not such as to confirm 

 him in this line of alimentation, though he admits that the 

 Dahlia is probably a tougher subject than the Opelet, and 

 requires different treatment to make it equally inviting as a 

 bonne botiche. 



One of the most delicately beautiful of our Anemones is the 

 Gem Pimplet (Bunodes verrucosa), which may be sought in 

 rock-pools near low-water ; also at low-water, half buried in 

 the sand, at the base of rocks. 



Its name of Pimplet is a soft way of describing its column, 

 which is crowded with pimples. As a rule these are of a light 

 pinky-brown or rosy tint, diversified by six vertical bands of 

 larger white pimples. In several specimens I have before me 

 as I write, however, the column is uniformly grey with a 

 pinkish tinge, the pimples being of the same hue and of equal 

 size. The disk is dark-grey, marked with fine lines of the 

 darker rays proceeding to the tentacles, and the space around 

 the elevated mouth is yellow, marked with a small clear spot 

 of carmine at the angles of the lips. The tentacles are conical, 

 rounded, with blunt tips ; the underside transparent grey, the 

 upper side darker, with many thin lines and broad rounded 

 bars of opaque white across it. When the tentacles are with- 

 drawn and we have the rounded top of the button stage, the 

 effect of the six white rows of pimples converging at the sum- 

 mit and forming a star pattern is very pretty. But when the 

 whole of the tentacles are fully expanded, the outer row bend- 

 ing slightly downwards, the next row curving upwards and 

 outwards, whilst the inner ones stand more or less erect, the 

 effect of the delicate pencillings and the pellucid greys in con- 

 trast with the warmer tints of the column is exceedingly fine. 



When the specimens are growing in a coralline-lined basin, 

 however, this peculiar style of beauty does not render them at 

 all conspicuous ; on the contrary, the Gem Pimplet is a species 



