Notices of New Books. 4057 



at the extremity as usual : the thickness of the stem is in this case 

 somewhat diminished. From the upper part of the cylindrical stem 

 or body, the disk abruptly spreads around to the width above indi- 

 cated. In this respect A. bellis differs so greatly from other littoral 

 species of sea Anemones, that it can never be mistaken by those who 

 have once seen it. In these, the disk is merely the termination of a 

 short thick column, occasionally a little expanded over the edge ; in 

 bellis, however, the diameter of the disk is generally four times that 

 of the body, at the point from which it expands. Its form, viewed 

 externally, is that of a shallow cup, but its surface is in general almost 

 flat, or a very little depressed to the centre. The whole bears a like- 

 ness closer than usual to a flower, with a foot-stalk. The disk is so 

 thin and membranous, that it is continually changing its form ; the 

 margin is frequently bent over outwardly or inwardly in places ; as it 

 lies on the uneven rock, it accommodates itself to the roughnesses, and 

 is hence often irregularly undulated ; it very commonly bends inward 

 at the edge in several places, so as to make puckers or frilled scal- 

 lopings around the margin. And this surely must be meant by what 

 writers describe and draw as * lobes ' to the disk ; for of lobes proper 

 it has none, not the slightest trace : the outline of the disk is most 

 perfectly and beautifully circular; and I find it often expanded in this 

 state, without any puckering or festooning. 



" The tentacles are small but numerous: they are arranged in about 

 six rows ; the innermost series contains about twelve tentacles ; the 

 next about the same number ; the third about twice as many ; the 

 fourth is again doubled ; the fifth increases in the same proportion ; 

 and the sixth contains about thrice as many as the fifth. This ratio, if 

 accurately carried out, would give a total of 768 tentacles to one Acti- 

 nia, a number which is not far from the mark, although, as in other 

 species, the rows are not quite regular. The inmost series of tentacles 

 is usually erect, or even inclines inwards, the others decline more and 

 more towards the circumference ; until the outmost two or three rows 

 lie quite flat upon the disk, to which the exterior one of all forms 

 an exquisite fringe : all the rows are small, but they diminish out- 

 wardly in size, and more rapidly the nearer they approach the edge ; 

 those of the outmost row are very minute, the longest (for they are not 

 equal) not exceeding the sixteenth of an inch in length, and some 

 being only tiny tubercles : they are slender, and set so close together 

 that I counted sixty in an inch. 



" The mouth is oblong, sometimes contracted to a slit, at others 

 showing a sub-oval, or lozenge-shaped opening, with the lips within 

 xi. 2 x 



