THE PLUMOSE ANEMONE. 21 



intercepts, by the action of the cilia with which the inte- 

 rior membranes are covered. Occasionally, such a spiral 

 fragment is driven into the interior of a tentacle, which is 

 indeed but a continuation of the interseptal chambers — and 

 here it is hurled to and fro in the ciliary currents, now 

 shooting forward to the tip, then slowly retrograding, then 

 again whirled towards the tip, which it appears to make the 

 most strenuous efforts to reach ; the combination of the 

 twofold ciliary action, — that which is dependent on the cilia 

 that line the interior of the tentacle, and that which results 

 from its own richly ciliated surface, — imparting a vacilla- 

 tion and ever-varying impetus to its movements that may 

 easily be mistaken for independent life. I have myself 

 fallen into this error.* 



The proper habitat of diantlnis is the coralline zone. 

 The trawlers in West Bay and Torbay bring up populous 

 colonies from a depth of twenty fathoms. In Weymouth 

 Bay it is specially abundant ; and yet this apparent pre- 

 eminence may be rather due to the fact that this celebrated 

 locality has been so perseveringly dredged. Be it so or not, 

 I can testify to the profusion with which the bottom of this 

 bay, from the deep sea of the offing to three fathoms or less, 

 is stocked with this fine Anemone. The oyster and scallop- 

 banks of Portland and Brixham are favourite haunts. It 

 is the habit of the species to live in society ; and both the 

 dredge and the trawl are constantly bringing to light 

 clustered groups, as well as single individuals. Family 

 groups are sometimes very numerous, as many as twenty 

 being not uncommonly crowded on a single oyster-shell, f 



* Devonsh. Coast, 116. 



+ Dr. Battersby informs me that, in the summer of 1 856, one of the 

 trawlers brought into Torquay a water-logged board, about two feet long 

 by one broad, on which were crowded between four and five hundred 

 specimens of A. dianthus, of all sizes, but a considerable proportion of 

 them large. What was curious was, that all on one side the board were 

 white, all on the other orange. 



