Bkc. 1, 1865.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Sea- Anemones. — I should like English aquarium- 

 keepers to know of the enormous dimensions at- 

 tained by some English sea-anemones in Germany, 

 that is in the Hamburg aquarium. About a year ago 

 I received from Torquay three specimens of the Opelet 

 {Anthea cereiis), each measuring about two inches in 

 diameter in their state of greatest expansion; but by 

 constantly feeding them, increasing the quantity of 

 food as they grew bigger, they have become ten 

 inches in diameter when fully out, and they are from 

 four to five inches in diameter of column. Their 

 tentacles are very strong, so that their tug will bend 

 a cane four feet long in the act of pulling it away 

 from them. Every day each of them eats one large 

 oyster or mussel, or, when I have neither of those 

 mollusks, I give each a quarter of au ounce of raw 

 beefsteak, free from fat. Of this food I never see 

 one particle after the animal has fairly swallowed it. 

 These Antheas can sting very severely. I once drew 

 one of their tentacles across my tongue, and the pain 

 and the swelling produced were great, lasting several 

 hours. I do not know whether this species has been 

 observed of such large dimensions in the sea as I 

 have named : if not, it would seem that by constant 

 attention and feeding, some of the lowest animals 

 (as well as many of the higher creatures) can be 

 improved in a state of captivity, I may mention that 

 they are in a tank measuring 72 inches long, CO inches 

 broad, and 30 inches high, containing about 300 

 gallons of sea-water, and that from 300 to 500 

 gallons— according to weather— run through the 

 tank day and night, every twenty-four hours. I am 

 very successful also with the great "Thick-homed 

 Sea-anemone " {Tealia crasslcornis), and in a tank of 

 the sanre size and stream power as that just named, 

 I have not less than eighty of these Crassicoritis, 

 most of them finely coloured and marked, and many 

 of them being monsters of six, seven, and eight inches 

 diameter when quite expanded. Each of these takes 

 its mussel or oyster daily, or more rarely its piece 

 of steak, and as with Anthea, not a morsel is rejected. 

 The other anemones under my care, consisting of 

 Biiiiodes Ballii, B. gemmacea, and B. thallia ; and 

 Sagartia vichcata, S. troglodytes, S. nivea, S. vemista, 

 S. hellis, and many others, take food with surprising 

 readiness and in great quantities, so long as I feed 

 them regularly, aud carefully give each individual its 

 proper quantity with a pair of wooden forceps. In 

 this way I pass about three hours every day in 

 feeding the Anemones and Madrepores only. But if 

 I neglect the feeding, the creatures rapidly deteriorate 

 in size and vigour, aud lose their power of taking 

 food. Of course if the streams of sea-water ever 

 ceased passing through the tanks, the whole thing 

 wouldspeediiycomc to grief, from the water becoming 

 fouled by the introduction of such a great quantity of 

 oysters, mussels, aud beef every day ; but as it is, it 

 remains perfectly transparent. I have mentioned 

 twice that when the food has disappeared in the 



anemone's stomach, I never perceive any of it after- 

 M-ards in the form of excrement, but only in the shape 

 of cast-off epidermal matter, which falls iu rings of 

 dirty-looking mucus around the exterior of the bases 

 of the anemones, aud those which take most food 

 cast off the largest quantity of skin. I omitted to 

 state in its proper place in this little communication, 

 that if I were to name the dimensions of some of our 

 Sagartia venusta, Biinodes Ballii, and Corynactis 

 viridis, which have been purposely fed up to ascertain 

 how big they will grow, I should be accused of exag- 

 geration. Actinoloba dianthus feeds well with me, 

 and attains a good size; but I have never seen one so 

 large as a specimen I got from. Weymouth in the 

 summer of 1857 ; it stood twenty inches high, 

 measured ten inches across the disk, and the column 

 varied from five to three inches in diameter. — W. 

 Alford Lloyd, Zoological Gardens, Hamburg. 



GEOLOGY. 



CuETACEOUS EossiLs. — Your correspondent 

 A. G. Pv. (see p. 229) criticises Page, forgetting 

 that he himself is in the wrong. Eor though Pecten 

 and Spoiidylus, &c., have fossil representatives, yet 

 no living species of either genus " is exactly similar 

 to those in a fossil state in the chalk." A. G. U. 

 should familiarize himself with the principles of 

 classification ; the mutual relations of species of a 

 genus. Distinctive characters can be pointed out 

 between any chalk-Pecten and any living one. 

 Fertea should hcPecteii ; Plagiostoma is synonymous 

 with Lima, but Spondyhis is evidently the genus 

 meant. Turbitella is a new name ; Turritella and 

 Terebratula are chalk genera ; probably the latter is 

 intended.— i?ff/?/)/i Tate, F.G.S. 



CouAL IIeefs.— In this paper (see p. 221) the 

 author parallels several coral-bearing formations 

 with coral reefs of the present day. None of these 

 really indicate the physical conditions at present 

 prevailing in existing tropical seas. The only lime- 

 stone that at all approaches to the structures at 

 present in process of formation, is the Coral Lime- 

 stone in the district of Trichiuopoly, East India. 

 This limestone rests on gneiss, and appears as ridges, 

 extending from a few hundred yards to three and 

 four miles in length. Its chemical and physical 

 characters correspond to those of recent coral reef 

 rock. These ancient coral reefs are surrounded by 

 strata of the Ootatoor and Trichinopoly groups of 

 the Cretaceous epoch ; and evidences are not want- 

 ing to show that this coral limestone was formed 

 on a sinking base, around which were deposited 

 cotemporaneously the Ootatoor and Trichiuopoly 

 beds.— Eor Mr. Sarhy read Mr. Sorhy ; for Mattheim 

 read JSattheim. — Uadpli Tate, F.G.S, 



