THE PLUMOSE ANEMONE. 189 



into an Aquarium, of which: ihe Palcemones are tenants, 

 in a very few minutes each of the latter will be found 

 to have captured one of the elegant strangers, and to 

 be greedily devouring it. 



Here too we get the Scairlet-lined .^sop fPandalus 

 annulicornis), a Prawn oflarger dimensions, sufficient 

 to entitle it to a place at our tables. You would at 

 first sight mistake it for the common Prawn {Palmmon 

 serratus), but for the diagonal stripes of rich red that 

 run along each side of its pellucid body. It is a 

 handsome species, but as I have not observed any 

 peculiarities of importance in its economy, I content 

 myself with a figure of it, which will be found in 

 Plate VI. 



THE PLUMOSE ANEMONE. 



This species, {Actinia dianthus) is by far the 

 largest and most magnificent of our native Ane- 

 mones, though I think I could hardly call it, with 

 Miiller, " actiniarum pulcherrima," as it is excelled 

 in beauty surely by A. crassieornis, and by several 

 of the smaller species. It varies greatly, in size, 

 form (so far at least as this depends on exten- 

 sion or coDtraction)j and colour. I have seen speci- 

 mens in the same colony, doubtless a family group, 

 one eighth of an inch in diameter, and others four 

 inches. Dr. Johnston speaks of some five inches 

 wide. Sometimes the same individual shrinks down to 

 an abject flatness, and presently swells and rises into 

 a noble massive column, from which the fringed disk 

 expands and arches over on every side, reminding the 

 beholder of a palm-tree. Then again, on some cause 



