A S TRjEA CEA . . SAGA RTIA D^E. 



THE ORANGE-DISKED ANEMONE. 



Sagartia venusta. 

 Plate I. Fig. 7. 

 Specific Character. Disk orange ; tentacles white. 



Actinia venusta. Gosse, Ann. N. H. Ser. 2, xiv. 281. 



Sagartia venusta. Ibid., Linn. Trans, xxi. 274. Tenby, 358 ; pi. xxiii. 



figs, a, b. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 

 Form. 



Base. Adherent to rocks ; little exceeding the column. 



Column. Smooth, or very minutely corrugated ; studded on the upper 

 half with suckers, which are not raised on conspicuous warts. Substance 

 fleshy. Form cylindrical, the height rarely exceeding the diameter. 



Dish. Flat or slightly concave ; the margin somewhat undulate. 

 Outline often ovate. Radii inconspicuous. 



Tentacles. About two hundred or upwards, set in about four indistinct 

 rows; the inner ones about as long as the diameter of the disk, the outer- 

 most small and close-set ; slender, acute, somewhat flaccid. 



Mouth. A simple orifice without cone, or distinct lip ; frequently 

 thrown into lobes. Throat ribbed. 



Acontia. Emitted copiously and freely. 



Colour. 



Column. Warm brown, varying from deep buff, to full rich brown- 

 orange, often paler towards the lower half, where traces of alternate lon- 

 gitudinal bands of pale and dark tint are sometimes visible. Suckers 

 whitish. 



Disk. Wholly of a most brilliant orange, without markings. 



Tentacles. Pure white, without markings, except that the colour is 

 generally pellucid at the foot and at the tip, and more or less opaque in 

 the middle. 



Mouth. Paler than the disk. Ribs of throat white. 



Size. 



A full-steed specimen well expanded is about three-fourths of an inch in 

 diameter of disk ; but the extended tentacles may increase this to an 



