68 SAGARTIAD^. 



Size. 



Large specimens attain the thickness of an inch, the height of an inch 

 and a quarter, and the diameter of an inch and a half, when fully 

 expanded. 



Locality. 

 The south-west coast of England. Crevices and rock-pools. 



Varieties. 



o. Immaculata. The condition above described. 



j8. Obscurata. Disk tinged with faint greyish-olive ; the tentacular 

 region smoke-grey, undefined. This variety sometimes has the column of 

 that rich orange-brown hue which is characteristic of this group. 



It was on the north side of the limestone promontory- 

 known as Petit Tor, on the south coast of Devon, that I 

 first met with the Snowy Anemone, in the spring of 1852. 

 The rock here is hollowed into large cavernous pools, 

 isolated only at very low tides, and dark with the shadow of 

 the slimy sponge-covered precipices that arch over them ; 

 where Laminarice grow abundantly, affording many a nidus 

 for profuse forests of parasitic Hydroids of the genera 

 Sertularia, Plumularia, and Laomedea. The little red 

 siphons of thousands of Saxtcavce hang down from the 

 holes which they have excavated in the solid limestone, 

 each terminated by a diamond drop of water, awaiting the 

 moment when the returning tide shall cover their abodes, 

 and restore to them activity and enjoyment. It is their 

 season of periodical idleness and repose. Among the 

 roughnesses of the rock, and the conical papillary pores of 

 the sponges, which, olive, yellow, and scarlet, stud the sur- 

 face, — green Nereidous worms glide along, in and out, by 

 means of the curious packets of slender bristles, alternately 

 projected from every segment and withdrawn, that serve 

 them instead of feet. Below the water-line, that is to say, 



