180 Zoological Society :— 
Arprasta Coucutt, W. P. Cocks, sp. 
Not very common : usually found under loose stones near the level 
of low tide. It preserves at Madeira all the chief characters and 
habits possessed by its British sisters—restlessness of disposition, 
flexuosity of tentacles, power of lengthening and contracting the 
column, love of attaching itself to the side of the tank near the sur- 
face of the water, the column hanging downwards with the disk and 
tentacles widely expanded ; lastly, eagerness in seizing and swallow- 
ing its food. Sometimes it will abandon all support and suspend 
itself freely in the water, base uppermost, remaining thus for several 
hours without moving, save in being continually employed in distend- 
ing the column laterally. The distention began to show itself at the 
disk, and travelled slowly along until it reached the base ; when this 
had been effected, the animal stretched itself out and then recom- 
menced the operation. One of my specimens, now living ina glass of 
sea-water, presented itself one day as a globular vesicle three-quarters 
of an inch in diameter. The disk and tentacles had been retracted, 
and the tips of some of the latter were just visible at the bottom of 
a depression resembling that seen at the top of an apple. 
ANTHEA CEREUS, Johnston. 
This species is by far the most abundant of the Madeiran Acéi- 
naria, being found in almost every pool on the rocks between tide- 
marks. It is undoubtedly the animal described in Dana’s great 
work under the name of Actinia flagellifera (Comactis flagellifera, 
M.-Edw.). 
ACTINIA MESEMBRYANTHEMUM, Ellis & Sol. 
This species stands next in regard to abundance. The commonest 
variety is coloured a red-purple, with numerous black dots on the 
column. Sometimes the spots are greenish grey, sometimes the 
marginal spherules are red-purple instead of being azure. The animal 
is frequently of an umber-brown ; and a few specimens have occurred 
which had a brown body and disk, with red-purple base and tenta- 
cles. Two specimens have been met with which had a dull-green 
body and tentacles, with a white base, blue marginal spherules, and 
a blue line at the junction of the column with the base. At the time 
I possessed these two Actinie a third specimen was obtained, slightly 
different from them ; and this was placed in the same glass. On 
looking at them after the lapse of a few hours, I found that the new 
comer was in contact with one of the others, and that six of the mar- 
ginal spherules of the latter on the side of contact had expanded into 
large, colourless, ovate vesicles, retaining only their original blue 
colour at the tips. The upper part of the body of the animal was 
separated at this time from the tentacle-bearing disk by a deep fosse. 
Subsequently more of the blue tubercles expanded, until ten in this 
state were counted; after a while the disk expanded laterally, the 
vesicles contracted, and the fosse disappeared. Whilst the vesicles 
existed, the tentacles in their neighbourhood became much reduced 
in diameter, so as to be filiform. I am not aware whether a similar 
phenomenon has been observed by others. 
