312 TURBINOLIAD^E. 



Varieties. 



a. Castanea. As above described. 



j3. Esmeralda. The chestnut here replaced by vivid green in like 

 intensity, except the border of the mouth, which is pale red. 

 y. Clara. Translucent white. 



On the perpendicular surfaces of cliffs with a northern 

 aspect, in narrow wall-sided fissures, and on the under 

 sides of fallen fragments of rock forming natural arches, 

 and in dark overhung tide-pools, I have found this beau- 

 tiful Coral in abundance on the coast of both North and 

 South Devon. It is only at the great recesses of the 

 equinoctial spring-tides that it is exposed, though in per- 

 manent pools of ample dimensions it occasionally occurs at 

 the half-tide level. For the most part gregarious in habit, 

 it occurs more in colonies than singly, and twenty, thirty, 

 and even more, are occasionally taken by the collectors 

 from a single pool. 



It is deservedly a favourite with aquarians; for if 

 removed from the rock with care by a proper use of the 

 chisel, scarcely any species is more hardy, more beautiful, 

 or more changeable in its aspects. I have been informed of 

 a specimen which had been preserved two and a half years, 

 and was then in health. It is free in expanding in 

 captivity ; perhaps its most common condition being that 

 in which the mouth is somewhat open, and the tentacle- 

 heads just peeping from beneath the half-closed margin of 

 the column ; but occasionally, and especially at night, the 

 animal expands to the full, and rears its lovely form far 

 above the level of its stony walls. This condition may, 

 however, at any time be induced by a proffer of food ; an 

 atom of raw flesh cautiously laid on the half-exposed disk 

 is a temptation too great to be resisted. The protrusile 

 lip slowly but evenly expands to embrace the food, and 

 then closes over it, meeting in a puckered knot in the 



