Notices of New Books. 4059 



differs not materially from the common state ; it is, however, of a par- 

 ticularly bright crimson, instead of purplish. 



" That this is a variety of A. bellis is manifest, because I have ano- 

 ther on the table from the same locality, which beautifully connects 

 the two states. This is a very handsome specimen : the disk is deep 

 brown, almost black, with the fine lines of scarlet diverging from the 

 centre as in that just described. The tentacles are some of them 

 brown, with one or two specks only of white near the base, and others 

 mottled in the ordinary manner with dark brown, light brown, gray 

 and white ; what is strange is, that these varieties of colour are dis- 

 posed in groups, a cluster of tentacles of the former hues, and then a 

 batch of the latter. The scarlet runs up around the base of each ten- 

 tacle, flushing its lower parts in a very elegant style ; and the oral 

 aperture is marked around the very edge with conspicuous white 

 tooth -like lines. This specimen was remarkable for the extent to 

 which it was clothed with coarse gravel, and for the tenacity with 

 which it held fast its strange stony garment, not dropping a fragment 

 even after several days' captivity. In general, Actiniae drop their gra- 

 vel coats soon after they are put into a vessel of clear water. 



" It is for the most part a stationary species, and that not only in 

 its own selected hole in the rock-pool, but even in captivity. It sel- 

 dom leaves the spot in the glass vessel to which it has once attached 

 itself. I have had a specimen, however, take it into his head to be a 

 traveller, after several weeks' residence in one spot ; he walked off in 

 a straight line to a distance of four inches, performing the feat, at a 

 pretty uniform rate, in about eight hours, or half an inch per hour. 



" In order to examine the structure of the tentacles, I cut off with a 

 fine pair of scissors the tips of one or two, and submitted them to the 

 microscope upon the compressorium. As soon as the pressure began 

 to flatten them, it became apparent that the tentacle was composed of 

 rather thick gelatinous walls surrounding a tubular centre. The lat- 

 ter was filled with a vast multitude of very minute granules of a rich 

 sienna-brown hue, and almost quite globular in form, all being quite 

 alike in shape, colour, and dimensions. These escaped by thousands, 

 on the increase of the pressure, from the tip of the tentacle, where 

 there was evidently a natural orifice forced open by the pressure, but 

 ordinarily, as I suppose, kept firmly closed by muscular action. The 

 gelatinous walls of the tentacle contained, imbedded in their sub- 

 stance, a goodly number (not so immense as in some other species) of 

 those highly curious organs known as the filiferous capsules. They 

 are in this case very minute, being about one twelve-hundredth part 



