■468 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO IjOj. 



neglected, requires a volume by itself, to show the amazing variety of vegetables 

 that lie hid from us in the great deep; I may make some observations on them 

 the subject of a future letter, especially as many of them are of the class of 

 dioecia; as well as those which I have already shown in the confervas; which 

 I believe will be new to the botanists. 



Description of plate 12. — Fig. a, the female conferva polymorpha; a, the same magnified, to 

 show the seeds in the capsules; b, the male conferva polymorpha j b, the same magnified, with 

 its male flowers J b 1 , one of the catkins, or male flowers highly magnified ; c, the female conferva 

 plumosa; c, the same magnified, to show its fructification; d, the male conferva pluraosa; b, the 

 same magnified, showing its catkins, or male flowers; e, conferva flosculosa; e, the same 

 magnified, showing its pedunculated flowers, or fruit, with their polypetalous cups; f, conferva 

 geniculata; f, the same magnified, to show its flowers surrounding the joints; g, conferva plumula; 

 o, part of it magnified, to show the disposition of its branches; g I, some of the fruit highly 

 magnified, to show its seeds, surrounded by a clear viscid pulp j h, conferva ciliata; h, the same 

 magnified, to show the little coronets on the joints. 



XLI. Of the Actinia Sociata, or Clustered Animal-Jlower , lately found on 



the Sea Coasts of the New-ceded Islands: In a letter from John Ellis, Esq. 



F. R. S., to the Earl of Hillsborough, F. R. S., p. 428. 



Among the many curious marine animals, which your Lordship has received 

 from the new-ceded islands in the West-Indies, there is one most uncommonly 

 rare: this is of great consequence to natural history, as it seems to bring 

 together two remarkable genera in the system of nature, which Professor Linnaeus 

 had removed far from each other. 



The one is the actinia or animal flower, the other the hydra or fresh-water 

 polype. The actinia, called by old authors, as Aldrovandus, Johnston, &c. 

 urtica marina, from its supposed property of stinging, is now more properly 

 called, by some late English authors, the animal flower. This name seems well 

 adapted to it; for the claws, or tentacles, being disposed in regular circles, and 

 tinged with a variety of bright lively colours, very nearly represent the beautiful 

 petals of some of our most elegantly fringed and radiated flowers, such as the 

 carnation, marygold, and anemone. As there are great variety of species of this 

 animal, so these species differ from each other in their form. The bodies of 

 some of them are hemispherical, others cylindrical, and others shaped like a fig. 

 Their substance likewise differs; for some are stiff and gelatinous, others fleshy 

 and muscular; but they are all capable of altering their shape, when they extend 

 their bodies and claws in search of their food. We find them on our rocky 

 coasts at low water, fixed in the shallows to some solid substance, by a broad 

 base like a sucker; but they can shift their situation, though their movement is 

 very slow. 



They have only one opening, which is in the centre of the uppermost part 

 of the animal; round this are placed rows of fleshy claws; this opening is the 



