346 eupsammiad^e. 



October new moon, among the rocks off the Tunnels, all in 

 the vicinity of the spot where I found the first. They were 

 always in the same circumstances, crowded in colonies ; 

 one cavity, just large enough to turn in, containing perhaps 

 a hundred, speckling the walls with their little scarlet disks, 

 near extreme low water. Not one that I took presented 

 the least variation from the characters I had jotted down 

 already ; but one specimen had adhering to its base two 

 very young ones, one about a line in diameter, the other 

 not more than one-third of a line. Examination with a 

 lens revealed no difference either in form or colour between 

 these and the adult ; the condition of their skeleton is un- 

 known, as I did not choose to destroy the infant specimen, 

 much to my present regret. 



Since that time it has been found in considerable abund- 

 ance along the same line of coast; and it has become 

 common in our aquariums. It is always attractive from 

 its brilliancy, and is moderately hardy, though it appears 

 rather more difficult to keep than Caryophyllia. 



The integuments are opaque, even when distended: 

 indeed they never become filled with water to anything like 

 the extent which makes the species just named so beautiful. 

 The plates are never visible, during life, in any degree of 

 contraction, the red flesh lying as an opaque cushion over 

 them even when all the tentacles are withdrawn. I am 

 not sure that the disk is ever wholly covered by the inver- 

 sion of the column ; even when the tentacles are quite con- 

 cealed beneath the margin, the large mouth-cone still pro- 

 trudes from the central orifice. Sometimes the tentacles 

 sink to very low warts or minute yellow eminences on 

 the scarlet plain that constitutes the disk. 



I have said that the epitheca is not unvarying ; and I 

 think that the flesh does not extend externally below its 

 edge. One in my possession, however, had the exterior of 



