424 THE CORYNACTIS. 



near the perpendicular ; yet they are not naked, being- 

 encrusted with Flustrce, Cellularice, Lepralice, Crisice, 

 SertularicB, and Sponges ; and the lower parts are 

 studded with the elegant Madrepore, Caryophyllia 

 Smithii. 



The over- arching roof of the hollow in question, — 

 it cannot he called a cave, — was studded over with 

 scores of what seemed a new Actinia, for as the tide 

 had left them dry, they were all in a contracted state, 

 and I had no opportunity of seeing the beautiful 

 clubbed form of their tentacles that distinguishes the 

 genus Coryiiactis. They were, however, much more 

 tender and soft than the Actiniae, so that, though I 

 had no difficulty in detaching them with the point of 

 my pocket-kiiife, their substance yielded so much that 

 I feared I was destroying them ; especially as under 

 the irritation they gave out an enormous quantity of 

 thick, tenacious white mucus, scarcely less consistent 

 than their own substance. 



They were of various colours, but all beautiful. I 

 will describe them, however, not as I imperfectly saw 

 them then, hanging from their native roof-tree, but as 

 I see them now before me, some five and twenty of 

 the finest that I selected for preservation, now comfort- 

 ably established in a saucer of sea-water. 



First as to form. When contracted they are com- 

 monly little flattish warts or sub-conical buttons, 

 much like Actinise ; but sometimes one will greatly 

 elongate its figure, swelling at the extremity, somewhat 

 like a long fig. (Fig. 8.) Sometiines they are very 

 much, depressed, the surface corrugated, and the out- 

 line irregularly lobed. (Fig. 9.) 



