162 ANTHEAD^E. 



£. Sulphured. As the preceding, except that the tentacles are pale 

 delicate lemon-yellow, with the slightest shade of green ; lilac-tipped. 

 (Herm : S. W. Ventnor.) In the Herm specimen, the tentacles were 

 scarlet at the foot. 



y. Alabastrina. Column and disk light translucent olive; tentacles 

 wholly clear waxy white. (Ventnor. Torquay.) 



S. Jtustica. Column and disk dull brown ; tentacles ash-grey, generally 

 with a paler line down the back. 



c. Punicea. Tentacles mahogany -red. (Gaertner.) 



Anthea cereus is one of our most abundant species, at 

 least on the south and west coasts of England and Scot- 

 land, and probably all round Ireland. Kapp and Grube 

 indicate it as common in the Mediterranean and Adriatic 

 seas ; but the omission of any allusion to it by Muller or 

 by Sars implies that it is unknown in the North Sea. Its 

 abundance where it occurs, its habit of congregating in 

 numbers, and its favourite resort, — shallow pools within 

 tide-marks, protected only by a few inches of water from 

 the full glare of the sun, as well as its size and conspicuous 

 colours, — all conspire to make it familiar to the most cur- 

 sory observer. It would, probably, be one of the first 

 .species of the whole race to become popularly known ; and 

 hence it is not surprising that old Rondeletius should take 

 notice of it in the middle of the sixteenth century, includ- 

 ing it in his " Libri de Piscibus Marinis," by the descrip- 

 tive epithet of Urtica cinerea. 



The late Dr. Johnston separated the genus from Actinia 

 in his " Brit. Zooph." Ed. 1 ; giving it the name of Anthea, 

 from avdos, a flower. The specific name of cereus seems to 

 have been appropriated to it in accordance with a fancy 

 which Ellis had of naming the Actinioi'ds after many- 

 petaled flowers, — cereus being the name of one of the Cacti, 

 now a genus. The waxy appearance of the tentacles in 

 some of the varieties may have influenced him in the 

 selection. The English name I have formed for it alludes 

 to the habitually open condition of the disk. 



