22 CORALS AND CORAL ISLANDS. 



body — a disk at top — one or more circular series of tentacles 

 making a border to the disk — a mouth, a merely fleshy, toothless 

 opening, at the centre of the disk, sometimes at the summit 

 of a conical prominence — a basal disk for attachment. The 

 upper extremity is called the actinal end, since it bears the 

 tentacles or rays, and the lower or base, the abactinal. 



Sea-anemones vary greatly in color, and in the distri- 

 bution of their tints. The lower figure on the frontispiece rep- 

 resents one variety of the Phymactis clematis from Valparaiso. 

 Another variety of the same has a rich deep green color. 

 The upper species on the same plate is one of the gorgeous va- 

 rieties of the Phymactis florida from Callao, Peru. Another 

 is green throughout ; and another has a pale bluish-green 

 disk with purplish tentacles, and the papillae of the body dark 

 sap-green on a pale reddish ground. The other species is the 

 Bunodes gemma, from Porto Praya, Cape Verd. It is one of 

 the warty species, and is but partly expanded. The same is 

 shown unexpanded in figure 3$, on the right, with disk and 

 tentacles, as usual in this state, wholly concealed. 



While often brilliantly colored, especially in the tropics, 



other Actiniae are nearly colorless. This was the case with 



that represented in the following cut, a species from Long 



Island Sound near the New Haven Light-house, figured 



some twenty years since by the author, but left undescribed. 



The body in this species had a .delicate texture throughout, its 



walls being so transparent that the organs within could be 



seen through them. It was exceedingly flexible and passed 



through various shapes, imitating vases of many forms, wine 



glasses, goblets, etc. It was generally very slow in its 



changes, and sometimes continued in the same vase-attitude 



for a whole day. 



Actiniae vary immensly in size, — from an eighth of an inch 



