CHARACTERISTIC DEEP-SEA TYPES. POLYPS. 



147 



few surviving Pennatulicbe may have been derived. But owing 

 to the difficulty of determining satisfactorily animals of this 

 family from alcoholic specimens, we shall notice only a few spe- 

 cies which have been figured from life by Verrill. 



Sagartia abysslcola (Fig. 460) is often found attached to the 

 tubes of Hyalinoecia. A large red or 

 orange species of Actinauge is A. 

 nodosa (Fig. 461), the column of 

 which is covered with hard warts ar- 

 ranged in rather regular transverse 

 and vertical rows, diminishing in size 

 from the top of the column towards 



Fig. 461. Actinauge nodosa. . (Verrill.) 



the base. Specimens of four inches 



in diameter and six inches in height 



are often brought up in the dredge. 



It has been dredged off our eastern 



coast, and extends from the Grand 



Banks to Cape Hatteras. Its bathy- 



metrical range is from 50 to 600 



fathoms. From the tentacles and 



upper part of the column is secreted 



an abundant mucus, which is highly phosphorescent. As has 



been suggested by Verrill, these Actiniae, anchored as they are 



in the mud by a basal bulb, probably lose their power of loco- 



Fig. 460. Sagartia abyssicola. 

 f. (Verrill.) 



