POLYPS AND CORALS. 65 



verrucas reddish brown/ the lower ones blue. Mouth, 

 disk, and tentacles bright pink or pale flesh-color. 



Ly-ce-moon Passage, near Hong Kong, China, in 

 twenty-five fathoms, gravel, April, 1854. Dr. William 

 Stimpson. 



When contracted, so as to conceal the tentacles, this 

 species has the form of a low, broadly truncated cone, 

 covered with verrucas, with an expanded base, and sur- 

 mounted by another smaller cone, formed by the smoother 

 submarginal area, with a concave summit. The speci- 

 mens preserved in alcohol have contracted in various 

 forms, but all have the tentacles fully exposed, though 

 contracted in length to a stout conical form. One spec- 

 imen retains nearly the normal form, as figured, others 

 have the stomach so everted as to conceal the disk and 

 even most of the column. The verrucas of the walls are 

 very conspicuous. 



ANTHOPLEURA Duch. and Mich. 



Anthopleura Duch. and Mich., Corall. des Antilles, p. 48, PL VII, 

 flg. 13, 1860; (pars) D. and M., in Supl. Corall. des Antilles, p. 31, 1864. 



Column elongated, subcylindrical. The walls with ten- 

 taculiform papillas near the upper margin, and below with 

 verruciform suckers arranged in vertical rows, diminish- 

 ing in size and number towards the base. The papillas 

 and some of the upper verrucas appear to be perforated 

 and have the power of ejecting water when the body con- 

 tracts, while the others are concave but imperforate, and 

 serve to agglutinate fragments of shell, sand, etc. Disk 

 narrow, tentacles rather few, long, rather stout. 



The known species live buried to the tentacles in sand. 



This genus is closely allied to Aulactinia of the Caro- 

 lina coast, which has the same habit of living buried in 

 sand, and a similar arrangement of suckers and tenta- 

 cles, but in the latter the marginal appendages have a more 

 complex character, becoming tri-lobed and crenulated, 

 thus approaching Oulactis more nearly. 



Duchassaing and Michelotti in their later work, have 

 modified the characters of their genus so as to include a 



COMMUNICATIONS OF ESSEX INSTITUTE, VOL. VI. 9 AUGUST, 1869. 



