ANTHEA. 267 



by it ; and the fragments of the fallen mountain are 

 already worn into round and smooth pebbles by the 

 rolling surf, so that no one would think on looking at 

 it that it had not been a shingle-beach ever since the 

 deluge. 



ANTHEA. 



On several occasions I have touched the tentacles 

 of Anthea cereus with my lingers, but have never ex- 

 perienced any other sensation than the shght adhesion 

 common to the Actinioi : not the least stinging. At 

 Hele, too, where the species is very numerous in 

 shallow rock-pools, a lad gathering periwinkles as- 

 sured me that it did not sting, and as a confirmation 

 of his assertion, immediately touched the tentacles of 

 one before me, with impunity. 



Very fine specimens are common in the pools 

 below the Tunnel, near extreme low water. They 

 are of tints varying from the most silky emerald green 

 to plain drab ; some are of very large size, fully three 

 inches in diameter of disk ; much more in expanse of 

 tentacles. I perceive, what I had noticed also in 

 specimens kept in captivity, that when the animal is 

 distended and expanded freely, the tentacles are 

 arranged in clusters or tufts of a dozen or twenty, 

 which are united at their bases, somewhat hke the 

 stock of a very branching shrub. 



Ehrenberg is right in affirming that this species 

 has the power of retracting its tentacles. My white 

 specimen described in an early page of this volume, 

 after having been in my possession more than six weeks 



