Radiata. 7413 



Note on Ilyanlhus Milchellii .—\Nh\h\. staying at Hastings in the spring of 1860, 1 

 bad the good fortune to obtain a very fine specimen of this rare anemone. It was found 

 by a boatman, in a hole in a rock about six miles eastward of Hastings. It was cer- 

 tainly a splendid animal, and from its size and bright colour attracted general attention 

 and admiration. In its shape, when open, it very closely resembled a thick stumpy young 

 carrot ; when closed it assumed a pear-like shape. The length of the column was 

 3 inches ; diameter at the disk 1 inch, from whence it increased in size for about oue- 

 ihird its length, until its diameter measured If inch, thence decreasing gradually 

 to a blunt point. At this lower extremity there was generally a very decided indenta- 

 tion, sufficiently large to admit easily a good-size probe ; this, however, was nut per- 

 manent, but was caused by the retractation of the terminal point (just as the top of a 

 finger of a glove might be turned inwards), for it was occasionally reversed and 

 thrust out to a sharper point : no orifice could be detected. The surface of the hide 

 was smooth, the upper portion covered with a mucus thickly coated with sand, which 

 was easily removed without injuring the animal, and did not re-form. The column 

 was carrot-colour ; round the top a band, three-eighths of an inch wide, of alternate 

 squares or " turrets," of violet and opaque white, very clearly defined (in this band it 

 very strongly resembled Bunodes coronola). The disk was round, of a translucent 

 brown, with alternate lines of a darker colour and white ; round the mouth a row of 

 patches of dark brown ; radii distinct ; the mouth raised ou a cone ; the lip, throat 

 and stomach coarsely furrowed, the upper edges of each furrow being of a beautiful 

 deep rich carmine ; the stomach was often obtruded over the whole of the disk, and 

 from the bright hue of its colouring presented a must brilliant appearance. The ten- 

 tacles, forty in number, set in two rows, were somewhat slender, about seven-eighths 

 of an inch long, usually curled ; their colour a pellucid white, elegantly marked on the 

 front faces with alternate bands of brown and opaque white: they were seldom 

 retracted. The anemone did not seem very sensitive to the touch, and would stand a 

 considerable amount of irritation without closing ; it was generally fully expanded 

 night and day. I afterwards obtained a second specimen, much smaller, which 

 agreed in all points with the larger one, excepting that it was much more sensitive to 

 the touch. Both were placed on sand, in which the smaller one partly burrowed, and 

 raised itself into an upright position for a few days. They lived about three weeks 

 after they came into ray possession.— ^c/j^aj-fZ C. Holwell ; 49, Union Grove, Wands- 

 worth Road, January 26, 1861. 



Ophiocoma fiUformis, Miiller, on the Durham Coast.— I have lately procured ex- 

 amples of 0. filiformis from the stomachs of haddocks taken off Hartlepool. This is, 

 I believe, the first time that the species has been noticed on the eastern coast of Great 

 Britain. It was first procured by Professor Forbes in the Firth of Clyde, where I 

 have also dredged it; and it was subsequently taken in the Loughs of Connemara. 

 These are the only recorded localities. It inhabits mud. The specimens observed 

 from this coast differ from those I have taken at Rothesay in having the scales at the 

 origin of the rays more nearly parallel, and the outline of the disk less irregular. The 

 anchor-headed spines peculiar to and characteristic of this species are, as far as my 

 observations go, few and far between, though some may always be detected.— ^//red 

 Merle Norman, in ' Transactions of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club,' iv. 337. 



