Mr. De la Beclie on the habits ofCari/ophyllia. 485 



I oflcred it a smaller piece of cockle, which it soon swallowed 

 and covered up, by closing the orifice of the sac. ' 



The greenish individual did not reject its morsel, but retained it 

 partly out for some time. There seems to be a great compressing 

 muscular power in the sac, for, after an hour's labour, the indivi-- 

 dual succeeded in enclosing the piece of cockle, which was com- 

 paratively of large size. The complete shutting of the sac may 

 perhaps be necessary to the perfect digestion of the food. 

 , Both individuals had the mouths of their sacs open before I 

 fed them. 



During the time the green individual was compressing the piece 

 of cockle, its tentacula were much shortened. 



I kept these animals alive for about a month ; but, as I observed 

 nothing new in their habits, they were killed in order to preserve 

 their calcareous cells. ' 



NOTE. 



In the first volume of Leach's Zoological Miscellany, a figure (plate 59) is 

 given of the Mediterranean species of Caryophyllia (Car. Cyathus). At page 

 133 the soft parts of the genus are thus characterized : " Animal tentaculis 

 plurimis carneis, teretibus, simplicibus, integris. Dom. T. Smith :" and, in 

 the same page, the following passage will be found. " For the discovery oC 

 the animal of this genus of corals we are indebted to the attentive researches- 

 of Thomas Smith, Esq., f.l.s., of Paper-buildings, Temple, who observed an 

 indigenous species of Caryophyllia on the southern coast of Devonshire, adher- 

 ing to a rock in a pool of water." The hard parts of this indigenous species 

 do not appear to have been any where described, nor have we been able to 

 find any figure of either the hard or soft parts, unless indeed figures 5 and 6, 

 tab. 82, in the 3d volume of Muller's Zoologia Danica, owe their origin to one. 

 of these corals with the soft parts in the cell. The likeness is great, and 

 though MuUer describes the figures as those of an Actinia, it is clear that he 

 never saw the specimen itself. He thus describes Actinia Iris, for which 

 he refers to the above-mentioned figures in the third page of his third volume. 



" Actinia corpore cylindrico, rugoso, tentaculis numerosis, simplicibus, cylin- 

 dricis, obtusis, exterioribus rujis, interioribus cosruleis, centra alhido. 



Actinia haec parvula, quam non vidi, varietas forsan est Actinise equjnffi, a 

 quk, cum ad parvitatem non respiciendum sit, vix distinguitur, nisi circulo 

 tentaculorum interiorum cceruleo." 



It will be observed on reference to Dr. Leach's generic character, that he 

 makes the double series of plates a principal ingredient in his definition. 

 Lamarck does not ; and he assembles under this genus a number of species 

 which differ entirely in this respect, as well as in other respects, from his first' 

 species, Car. Cyathus. Mr. Stokes therefore proposes to separate those specie*^ 



