EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED STATES. 



19 



the mouth in some states of expansion. The stomach is often everted so as to completely 

 disguise and replace both the mouth and disk. 



The color is often bright cherry red with the tentacles paler and diaphanous, but is quite 

 variable according to the locality. The specimens from deep water are generally as 

 described above, or flesh-color and diaphanous. In shallower water (8 to 15 f.) they are 

 frequently blotched or streaked with bright red on a light red or greenish ground 

 color ; the tentacles are pale flesh-color, each with a band of pink near the middle and 

 another near the tip, with often a white band between, and white at the extreme tip ; 

 the disk pink with radiating lines of red, which embrace the bases of the tentacles and 

 sometimes fade away before reaching the mouth, which is surrounded by an ill-defined 

 circle of red, the angles of the mouth pale orange. Littoral specimens are most com- 

 monly of a clear, bluish green color, irregularly blotched with crimson or reddish brown ; 

 tentacles pellucid, or light red, with a diffuse spot of white on the inner side of the base 

 and an undefined white band near the middle ; the disk greenish with purple radii. The 

 following are descriptions made from life of some of the other colors frequently met with at 

 Eastport, Me. : 1. Column deep crimson ; tentacles light reddish brown, each with a broad 

 band of dark crimson near the end, bordered below by a faint light band, the extreme tip 

 whitish ; disk light greenish brown with radiating lines of purple ; mouth surrounded by a 

 broad, faint ring of purple (littoral). 2. Column flesh-color with blotches of orange red ; 

 disk flesh-color with bright red radii which do not reach the mouth ; the latter light orange 

 (littoral). 3. Column flesh-colored, mottled with bright pink with a band of pink just below 

 the tentacles ; radii of the disk bright pink, well defined ; tentacles, each with a large white 

 spot at the base on the inside and a smaller one on the outside, a broad pink band above the 

 base, a narrow whitish band in the middle, then another broad pink band, and, finally, white 

 at the tip (in 20 f. rocky bottom). 4. Column uniform light pink with an orange tinge, 

 except a band of a somewhat lighter tint below the tentacles, the surface a|Dpearing smooth ; 

 tentacles pink with lighter tips ; disk very pale pink with well-marked spots of oj)aque 

 white in front of the bases of the tentacles (20 f. shelly bottom). The last form seems per- 

 fectly identical with Stimpson's Actinia earmold. Some of the smaller specimens agree with 

 his description in every respect, but do not appear to differ in anything except color from 

 the young belonging to the ordinary varieties. 



This species discharges young of various sizes, and probably eggs also. Some of the 

 young, about .98 of an inch in diameter, had but six tentacles, which were longer than the 

 width of the disk ; others, about .10 of an inch, had twelve tentacles, six of them much 

 longer than the diameter of the disk ; another about twice as large had twelve tentacles 

 well developed, and two very small ones appearing regularly in one of the systems and 

 two others appearing in one half of another system ; others, about a quarter of an inch 

 in diameter, had twenty-four tentacles about equal in length to the diameter of the disk 

 and some very small ones appearing in some of the systems. Specimens an inch in 

 diameter when expanded have about sixty tentacles, which are nearly half an inch long, 

 the primary ones being placed about midway between the mouth and the margin. (Coll. 

 Mus. Comp. Zool.) 



Eange from Nantucket shoals to Grand Menan, perhaps to Labrador, and in depth from 

 the middle region of the littoral zone to thirty fathoms. 



On the shore it seems to prefer ledges covered thickly with fuci, and in such places is 

 often very abundant, completely covering the cavities and fissures. It is often associated 

 with Bunodes stella, but does not confine itself so exclusively to fissures as the latter, and is 



