52 BULLETIN OF THE 
lower part of the body is usually nearly smooth and naked, with a firm, carti- 
laginous texture, but higher up there will usually be some very large, low, 
rounded verruce or tubercles, on some of which the brownish chitinous or epi- 
dermal coating is usually retained. 
The tentacles are not very large, moderately long and slender, changeable, 
with the tips either acute or obtuse; in large examples they are numerous, 
forming several rows. 
The color of the body, in life, is usually sista dull pale red, flesh-color, 
or salmon, where it is not concealed by the dirty, dark brown epidermis; the 
verruce are often whitish or pink, while the wrinkles and grooves between 
them are dark brown or mud-color ; the submarginal zone, which is 15 to 
20 mm. or more broad in the larger examples, is bright red, orange-brown, or 
chocolate-brown; the color is often in stripes of darker and lighter tints. The 
tentacles are usually dark pink, salmon, orange or orange-brown, varying to 
dull red and chocolate-brown, Disk usually orange or reddish brown, or 
chocolate, with lighter and darker radii. 
This species grows to a large size. Examples are often taken that are 80 to 
100 mm. (4 inches) in diameter, and 100 to 150 mm. (6 inches) high. Ordi- 
nary adult specimens are 50 to 75 mm. broad, and 80 to 100 mm. high, with 
the larger tentacles about 15 to 20 mm. long. 
Of the typical variety, a number of specimens were taken by the Blake, 
south of George’s Bank and off Martha’s Vineyard, at Stations 303, 309, 310, 
in 260 to 306 fathoms; at Station 332, off Cape Hatteras, in 263 fathoms; and 
at Station 336, off Delaware Bay, in 197 fathoms. 
It has been taken by the U. 8, Fish Commission at a large number of sta- 
tions on the Gulf Stream Slope, off Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, and Long 
Island, and off Chesapeake Bay, during 1880, 1881, and 1882, in 86 to 506 
fathoms. In this region it is often very abundant and of large size, in 160 to 
506 fathoms. The smaller ones mostly occur clasping the tubes of Hyalinecia; 
the large ones generally enclose a ball of sand and mud, in the bulbous base. 
It has also been taken by the Fish Commission off Cape Cod, in 50 to 90 
fathoms, 1879, 1882; Gulf of Maine, Massachusetts Bay, Casco Bay, Bay of 
Fundy, in 50 to 150 fathoms, 1872 to 1879; off George’s Bank, in 430 fathoms, 
on the Bache, 1872; off Nova Scotia, in 50 to 110 fathoms, 1877 
The Gloucester fishermen have brought it in from a large number of locali- 
ties, on all the fishing banks, from George’s to the Grand Bank, in 30 to 300 
fathoms. It is particularly common on the stony bottoms of Le Have Bank, 
Western Bank, and Banquereau, off Nova Scotia. 
The description of this species by Fabricius, from Greenland examples, ap- 
plies accurately to one of our commonest varieties. I have also received two 
examples from Denmark, through Dr. Chr. Liitken, of the Copenhagen Mu- 
seum, which, so far as can be seen from the alcoholic specimens, agree perfectly 
with some of our less nodose varieties. These were sent as Actinia digitata 
Miiller. But the Actinia (or Tealia) digitata of Gosse and several other 
European writers may be a distinct species. 
