292 . CAPNEADiE. 



The expanded disk, with the opaque white tentacle- heads 

 scattered over it, looks like what the ladies call " spotted 

 muslin ; " while, under a lens, the tentacle-stems resemble 

 lace, or figured blonde. 



Around Torquay the species exists in much variety. 

 On the shadowed sides of the perpendicular wall-like rocks, 

 near Meadfoot, I have seen, at extreme low water, countless 

 groups, displaying their lovely little coronets within reach 

 of my hand, as I was pushed in a small boat through the 

 narrow passes of the islets. Dr. E. P. Wright finds it in 

 amazing profusion, " covering whole rock-pools," at Crook- 

 haven. He says that some of these expanded to nearly 

 an inch in diameter, — dimensions which far exceed those 

 of such as I have seen. They have been occasionally found 

 on roots of Laminaria, and Mr. Cocks has taken a number, 

 half-digested, from the stomach of a Plaice. 



They feed readily on minute morsels of raw meat; which, 

 however, must be laid on the disk with great caution, or 

 the animal will close. In taking-in the morsel the Cory- 

 nactis does not protrude the lips to embrace it, nor close 

 the tentacles over it, like the Actinice, but dilates the 

 mouth slowly and uniformly, until the lips form a circle of 

 great width, nearly as wide, indeed, as the disk, within 

 which the visceral cavity, like a broad saucer, is seen, with 

 the coiled craspeda lining its sides and bottom. Into this 

 gaping cavity the morsel is drawn, and then the lips 

 gradually contract and embrace it, finally protruding in a 

 pouting cone. This is exactly the manner of Caryophyllia 

 Smithii. 



There is much in the appearance of this animal which 

 agrees with Caryopliyllia: the colours and their distribu- 

 tion, the general translucency of the tissues, the form and 

 crenation of the mouth, and, in particular, the shape, 

 arrangement, and minute structure of the tentacles, are 



