POLYPS AND CORALS. 321 



but often encroaching more or less upon the disk, the 

 primary cycles being nearest the mouth, and largest. 

 Column contractile, smooth or tuberculated, perforate 

 or imperforate. 



Subfamily, Actinin"^ Yerrill, op. cit. p. 15. 



Family, Actiniadce Gosse, Actinologia Britanica, p. 171, 1860. 



Tentacles submarginal, elongated, slender, margin of 

 the column at the outer bases of the tentacles sur- 

 rounded by a circle of brightly colored, roundish tuber- 

 cles, which correspond, apparently, with the so-called 

 eye-spots of Acalephs, etc. 



Actinia (pars) Linn. ; Edw. and Haime, etc. 



Column smooth, having neither lateral pores, suckers, 

 nor verrucge. Tentacles and disk highly contractile. 

 Colored tubercles in a single marginal row. 



Actinia (?) timida Verrill, sp. nov. 



Base enlarged, adherent to shells ; tentacles cylindrical, 

 blunt, wholly retractile, exterior ones with slight bulb- 

 like projections at their outer bases. 



Color of body fawn-colored, striped with dark green ; 

 outer tentacles whitish, shaded once or twice with flake- 

 white ; marginal or basal bulb with flake-white sides ; 

 inner tentacles, near their bases, mottled with brown, 

 yellow, and flake-white, with clear spots looking like 

 holes. 



Hong Kong harbor, common on a gibbous JSTassa in the 

 third region of the littoral zone, in sandy mud and 

 pebbles, February, 1855. Dr. Wm. Stimpson. 



This is a very sensitive species, contracting at the 

 slightest disturbance. Its position in this genus is quite 

 doubtful. 



COMMUNICATIONS OF ESSEX INSTITUTE, VOL. V. 42 DEC, 1868. 



