88 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



further on, fig. XVIII., No. 1), and is thus a commensal — 

 a partner and not a parasite. When the hermit-crab grows 

 too large for its shell it finds a new one, and with its 

 great claws transfers its partner, the anemone, from the 

 old to the new home. This anemone, although dredged 

 from deep water, usually lives well in our shallow table 

 tanks. Altogether we have found more than 20 different 

 kinds of sea-anemones in the neighbourhood of Port Erin. 



Mr. J. A. Clubb, of the Liverpool Free Public 

 Museum, is our local authority on sea-anemones, and has 

 published several papers on the subject. 



Sea-anemones are the British representatives of the 

 reef-building corals of tropical seas. The coral animals 

 are colonies of polypes, each of which is somewhat like a 

 sea-anemone with a calcareous skeleton. 



Our nearest representative of the Mediterranean 

 animal which forms the red coral of commerce, is 

 Alcyonium digitatum, sometimes known as " Dead men's 

 fingers " or " Dead men's toes." This is a common, white, 

 or orange colony, of fleshy consistency and lobed shape 

 (see fig. VI., 1), which is found attached to the under side 

 of the great blocks of the old breakwater at low tide. The 

 surface of the colony is covered when alive and expanded 

 with delicate, translucent anemone-like polypes, each of 

 which has eight fringed tentacles surrounding a small 

 • cnii ;il mouth. No. 2 shows a polype with its tentacles, 

 and No. 3 some of the scattered spicules of carbonate of 

 lime which are found imbedded in the flesh of the colony. 



No. I -hows another much rarer animal (Sarcodictyon 

 catenata), obtained by dredging in deep-water off Port 

 Erin. It is closely related to Alcyonium, and figures 2 

 and 5 show thai the polypes are very similar, although the 

 colony of Sarcodictyon (No. I has merely a creeping red 

 rootle! or "stolon" connecting the bases of the small 



