52 Proceedings of tlie Royal Irkh Academy. 



V. — Report oit Irish Zoophytes. — Part I. On some Rare Sea 

 Anemones taken at Greystones, Co. AVicklow, with Remarks on 

 THE Marine Invertebrate Fauna of that District. By H. W. 

 Mackintosh, M.A., M.R.I. A., Professor of Zoology and Curator of 

 the Museum of Anatomy and Zoology in the University of Dublin. 



[Read, November 10, 1883.] 



In the early part of 1878 I undertook to compile a list of the coelen- 

 terata of the coast of Dublin, for the Guide Book published in connexion 

 ■with the visit of the British Association to the metropolis. I became 

 interested in the group, and in the beginning of 1882 resolved to 

 extend my investigations, previously very limited, to other parts of 

 the coast. In pursuance of this project I applied for and obtained a 

 grant from the Academy, and having spent parts of the summers of 

 1882 and 1883 at Greystones, Co. Wicklow, I undertook a tolerably ex- 

 tensive series of dredgings, with a view to the collection of Zoophytes. 

 In the course of my investigations I met with the Sea Anemones 

 which form the first part of the present communication, and as my 

 dredging operations covered a fairly large area, I have thought that it 

 would not be out of place to record some observations relative to the 

 marine invertebrata of the district. 



The first of the Sea Anemones I have to notice is the splendid 

 Bolocera eques, Gosse. The genus Bolocera was established by Gosse to 

 receive a single species {B. Uiedm, Johns), nearly related to Tealia, 

 from which it differs mainly in the non-retractility of the disc and 

 tentacles. In the Appendix to his "Actinologia Britannica " Gosse 

 described and figured, under the name of B. eques, another species 

 which differs from B. tuedics in having the tentacles completely, though 

 peculiarly retractile, thus still further approximating to Tealia, but 

 still possessing the facies of Bolocera. That B. tuedice is distinct from 

 Tealia cannot, I think, be doubted, the non-retractility of the disc and 

 tentacles alone forming a well-marked distinction ; but that B. eques is 

 generically distinct from Tealia seems to me to be open to question, 

 even though so skilled an actinologist as Gosse says that the discovery 

 of this form " makes me better satisfied with the establishment of such 

 a genus" [as Bolocera]. 



The specimen on which he founds the species was taken in "twenty- 

 eight-fathom water about ten miles east of the mouth of the Tees" : the 

 specimen obtained by me was dredged in about twelve-fathom water, 

 some two and a-half miles off Greystones, in a line with the Moul- 

 ditch buoy [vide infi^a). Whilst its genei'al resemblance to Gosse's 

 figure and description was unmistakable, it differed from his example 

 in having tentacles more of the modern shade of ecni than white ; the 

 red ring was well marked, as was the habit noted by Gosse of puffing 



