MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 47 



hole remained open. This form of tube proved quite successful, 

 but in course of time it became detached from the plate. 

 Finally, the tubes were fixed into thin circular blocks of con- 

 crete, made from an equal mixture of fine sand and cement. 

 The communication between the base of the tube and the 

 exterior was made by laying a rod across the mould before the 

 mixture was poured into it. The communication at the base 

 appears to be important, at any rate all our specimens died 

 when no opening was left. Specimens have lived now for many 

 months in these tubes, feeding freely on small pieces of mussel 

 or crab liver. The vestlets when violently disturbed retire 

 into their tubes with a rapid series of corkscrew-like movements 

 and a slight shrinking of the column. The colours of the Piel 

 Island colony vary much more than is described by Gosse. 

 The column is always pale buff or whitish. The disk and 

 tentacles vary in colour from chocolate to pellucid white. In 

 some, the tentacles and disk are wholly chocolate colour. In 

 others, the disk is white, and the tentacles chocolate. 

 Occasionally both the disk and tentacles are pellucid white, 

 or the tentacles only may have faint ladder-like chocolate 

 bands. 



The only previous record for the adult in the Irish Sea 

 area is that given by Gosse in " The British Anemones and 

 Corals," page 270. He had specimens sent from the Menai 

 Strait collected by Mr. Alfred Lloyd in 1856, and after whom 

 the species is named. The discovery of Cerianihus on Piel 

 Island was purely accidental and it is little use speculating 

 on the age of the colony, but it would be interesting to know 

 if the colony in Menai Strait still exists after the lapse of sixty- 

 five years. When the preliminary investigations were made, 

 before the laboratory was established at Roa Island, some 

 twenty-five years ago, I noted a considerable colony of white 

 and orange plumose anemones (Metridium dianthus, Ellis) on 

 the underside of the platform of Roa Island ferry pier, near 



