108 
fice; at times this is drawn into the shape of a crescent. Whilst 
copying this portion of my notes, my Corynactis does not appear quite 
easy ; it has thrown out its lobes, covering every part of the disk, 
with the exception of the crenated margin; the lobes do not rise, as 
in species of Actinia, above the margin ; they are on the contrary flat 
and even with it, and are firm to the touch. 
The colour of the animal is a delicate yellow or buff. The disk 
is of a pellucid white, streaked with fine radiating lines of a dead 
white. The tentacles of the first row are pellucid white, with the 
capitate extremities dead white ; the tentacles in the three remaining 
rows are also pellucid white, in parts tinged faintly with a reddish 
hue; the capitate extremities have a powdered white edge. The 
mouth is of a darker yellow than the body. 
This species does not appear to change its shape very much, thus 
differing from the other known British species; the only change I 
have noticed was that from a state of contraction to one of expan- 
sion, from the button shape to nearly a true cylinder, of pretty equal 
dimensions at both extremities, with a constriction immediately under 
the crenated margin. It easily adheres by its base to any substance, 
and may be said to be rather lively, often continuing for some time 
constantly opening and closing. 
It also throws out lobes in the manner of other Aetiniade, and 
these at times completely cover the disk. If touched it instantly 
contracts, but does not turn sulky, commencing immediately to re- 
open, which it does very slowly, and this by exserting the tentacles 
on one quarter of the disk before it begins to exsert those on the 
other three quarters. The tentacles have not the motion of Aetinia 
or Anthea. I dropped a piece of meat on the disk when opened ; it 
remained there some little time without bemg taken into the stomach ; 
after some time the animal wished to rid itself of the meat; it then 
slowly bent over, and the meat rolled or floated across the tentacles 
without being impeded by them. When taken this animal was per- 
fectly smooth and free from all foreign substances, such as sand and 
gravel. 
The appearance of this Corynactis reminds me of a coronet, the 
heads of the outer row of tentacles bearing a resemblance to the balls 
on the edge of the coronet, and this more so than in either C. viridis 
or C. Allmannii; and I should have proposed the specific name of 
coronalis, did it not partly apply to the other species. 
Corynactis heterocera, it will have been seen by the description, 
differs very materially from the other British species, in the form of 
the tentacles, the colour, the superior size, the coriaceous texture, its 
general immutability of form, and in having no foreign substance 
attached to the epidermis when caught, as in C. Allmannii. I have 
named it heterocera in reference to its most prominent distinction 
from the other species in its differently shaped tentacles. 
Hab. Dredged in Weymouth Bay, in 8 fathoms of water, on a 
gravelly bottom, Sept. 10, 1853. 
