the Actiniarian Family Aliciide. 3 
Alicia mirabilis, J. Y. Jolson. 
Alicia mirabilis, Johnson, 1861, p. 808 ; 1862, p. 182. 
Cladactis mirabilis, Andres, 1883, p. 443. 
Form *.—Base very broad and usually adherent, capable 
of changing its position and of becoming free and floating 
upwardly at the surface of the water, may undergo great 
dilatation, undulate, much larger in diameter than the 
column, thin-walled and transparent, mesenterial lines form 
ridges and furrows, margin deeply crenate. 
Column erect, somewhat cylindrical, enlarging above and 
below ; beset, except towards the apex, with simple or 
branched pedunculated vesicular outgrowths of the ccelenteron, 
which, in contraction, entirely hide the column-wall, but in 
extension allow it to be seen; column-wall thin, pellucid, 
marked with slight longitudinal furrows corresponding with 
those on the base. Vesicles small proximally, nearly sessile, 
bear at their summit a single thickening or wart of hemi- 
spherical outline; become larger above, may have stalks 
half an inch high and three-tenths of an inch in diameter, 
which divide and redivide very closely into as many as sixty 
parts, each crowned with a wart; the appearance of the 
vesicles when half contracted bears some resemblance to a 
head of cauliflower or to a strawberry ; capable of consider- 
able contraction and inflation, but non-adherent. 
Tentacles simple, entacmzous, numerous, subulate, elon- 
gate, rather slender, thin-walled, transparent, filamentous at 
apex, often coiled and overhanging, completely but not readily 
retractile, arranged in three (or four) rows near the margin of 
the disk, beset with minute urticating areas. 
Disk slightly depressed or may be inflated, not larger than 
the diameter of the column, pellucid; twelve radiating 
furrows correspond with the six pairs of perfect mesenteries. 
Mouth large; lips usually distended and divided by deep 
furrows into six longitudinal ribs on each side; no gonidial 
grooves distinguishable. 
Colour.—Base uniformly pale brown or impure white; 
column very pale brown; peduncle of the vesicles mostly 
opaque white, but may be orange or a pale chestnut; warts 
on small appendages a dull purple or grey surrounded by a 
ring of white; apex sometimes divided by a white line into 
two grey areas or by cross-lines into four areas; disk pale 
* The description of the external characters is founded upon those 
originally published by Mr. Johnson and upon notes accompanying his 
later specimen. 
1* 
