Mr. P. H. Gosse on new or little-known Marine Animals. 127 



I first found this zoophyte at Lulworth on the 8th of June, 

 and I have since obtained many other specimens at Weymouth. 

 On each occasion the locality and circumstances were the same ] 

 rocky ledges, at extreme low water, spring-tide. 



Fam. AcTixiAD^. 

 Actinia miniata (mihi). The Scarlet Anemone. 



Diameter to 1 inch when expanded. Disk broad, pale greenish 

 gray, with radiating lines numerous and distinctly mottled with 

 dark brown. Generally a conspicuous white band occupies one 

 of the radiations. Tentacles numerous, in four rows, rather 

 short, conical; pellucid brown, with indistinct annulations of 

 pellucid dark brown and whitish ; the base of each tentacle has 

 two black and two bright white rings more or less distinct, 

 alternating with each other. The outermost row of tentacles are 

 peculiar; they consist of a sheath of pellucid brown hue, like the 

 others, but each is permeated by a thick core of orange or ver- 

 milion, very brilliant, much resembling the central gland in the 

 papilla of an Eolis. Sometimes the scarlet core is distinctly 

 separate from the pellucid walls of the tentacle, at other times, 

 in the same individual, it appears to fill the whole interior. In 

 some specimens this phsenomenon is partially or wholly wanting. 



Contracted, it forms a button of about the same diameter, va- 

 rying in degrees of depression or elongation, the base sometimes 

 irregularly lobulate. Colour, a fine orange- scarlet, occasionally 

 merging into purplish red towards the summit, studded with 

 large pale glands, which become confluent and form pale radia- 

 ting bands around the pursed mouth. Under a lens the scarlet 

 colour is seen to run in slender veined Hues. 



Foimd adhering to oysters and pectens brought in by the 

 trawlers : not uncommon. It may possibly be the immature 

 state of Act. parasitica. 



Act. clavata (Thompson), var. rosea. The Weymouth Anemone. 



A veiy fine specimen when fully expanded has the disk 1^ in. 

 and the tentacles ^ in. more on every side, making a diameter 

 of 2^ inches. It is so diaphanous as to be almost colourless, the 

 disk showing clearly the convoluted filaments in the septal divi- 

 sions. The tentacles are of a lovely rose-colour, studded with 

 transversely-oval specks of white ; they also are pellucid, and the 

 hue is therefore much diluted ; but when captured, they were 

 deep purplish pink or crimson. 



The exterior surface is rough, with multitudinous sucking; 

 glands, an-anged in close-set perpendicular ridges of pale yellow 

 warts, with a crimson freckled skin showing between. Every 

 wai-t has a central crimson speck, and this seems constant; the 



