INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. 
The sole representative of the Madreporaria in shallow New England waters 
is the genus Astrangia. One species of Astrangia has been found in New Eng- 
land, and has been mentioned or described by Louis Agassiz, Leidy, Alexander 
Agassiz, Verrill, and others. It is referred to by Leidy as A. astreformis, M. 
E. & H., by L. Agassiz, A. Agassiz, and Verrill as A. Dane. 
Astrangia is found along the eastern coast of the United States and occurs 
in the southern limits of the New England fauna, south of Cape Cod. It occurs 
in shallow waters of Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, Buzzard’s Bay, and 
Vineyard Sound. Its northern limits are the waters adjoining the southern end 
of Cape Cod. 
The genus is often found in crevices of the rocks and on the sides of cliffs, 
just below low tide, from which places it ranges into shallow-water dredgings, 
and is apparently found in great numbers in its favorite haunts. Astrangia 
seems to prefer a rocky to a sandy bottom. While it is generally found in the 
form of incrustations on the rocks and dead shells, it sometimes rises in low, 
club-shaped branches. In aquaria it is hardy and easily kept alive in pure 
water. It devours greedily small crustacea, fishes, fragments of beef, and other 
forms of meat, and is far from fastidious in its preferences. Small live animals, 
as fishes, are easily killed by its nematocysts, provided the prey be held in the 
neighborhood of the tentacles. 
The specimens which I have studied were found on Price’s Neck, a small 
peninsula on the southern extremity of the island of Rhode Island, not far from 
the Newport Laboratory. Clumps of colonies are easily broken from the rocks 
at low tide, where these animals live in company with a rich littoral life. 
The color of the expanded Astrangia is white, almost transparent, resem- 
bling an Edwardsia or small white actinia. When contracted the color shows 
a green or bluish tinge. The motion in contraction is less rapid than in 
Edwardsia, and is often sluggish. When overfed it will not respond by con- 
traction, even when touched or stroked with a foreign body. 
The live Astrangia from New England was first observed by Prof. Louis 
*Proc. Amer. Assoc., 1849. 
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