ASTRjEACEA. SAQARTIABjE. 



THE PARASITIC ANEMONE. 



Sagartia parasitica. 

 Plate II. fig. 6. 



Specific Character. Large, pillar-like ; skin coriaceous ; tentacles in 

 seven rows, marked with a many-broken line down each side. 



Actinia effmta. Rapp, Polyp. 54; pi. ii. fig. 2 (An Linnaei?). 



parasitica. Couch, Zooph. Cornw. 34 ; Corn. Fauna, iii. 80 ; 

 pi. xv. figs. 1, 2. Johnst. Brit. Zooph. Ed. 2. 228, 

 pi. xli. Cocks, Rep. Cornw. Pol. Soc. 1851, 8, 

 pi. ii. fig. 11. Gosse, Aquarium, 144, pi. iv. 

 Tugwell, Manual, pi. vi. 



Sagartia parasitica. Gosse, Tr. Linn. Soc. xxi. 274 ;' Ann. N. H. Ser. 3. 

 i. 416. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION. 

 Form. 



Base. Adherent, generally to shells. Little exceeding the column. 



Column. Minutely corrugated on the upper parts, but studded on the 

 lower half with numerous warts, mostly small, but a few among the rest 

 large and prominent. No apparent suckers. Substance firm, somewhat 

 coriaceous. Form, that of a thick pillar; the height twice or thrice as great 

 as the diameter ; plump and rounded. Margin forming a slightly thickened 

 rim, minutely notched, scarcely rising above the level of the disk, and 

 obliterated when the disk is fully expanded. 



Dish. Nearly flat, or slightly concave ; the margin somewhat mem- 

 branous, wider than the column, which it overarches; occasionally it is 

 thrown into puckered undulations, but only to a small extent. Radii not 

 prominent. 



Tentacles. Five hundred or upwards ; arranged in about seven rows, of 

 which the first contains about twenty, the second twenty-four, the third 

 forty-eight, the fourth ninety-six ; those of the other rows are too numerous 

 and too closely set to be enumerated. The first row springs from the disk 

 at about half-radius, — that is, midway between the lips and the margin 

 they occasionally stand erect, but more frequently arch outwards in 

 elegant overhanging curves. When distended, those of the first row are 

 often an inch in length, and one-eighth of an inch in thickness : the others 

 diminish in regular gradation, until those of the margin do not exceed a 

 line in length. Their form varies in different individuals, and perhaps at 



