Actinia. 
Z. HELIANTHGIDA. 
211 
Dan. prod. 231, no. 2793. Turt. Gmel. iv. 104. Flem. Brit. Anim. 
497. Cuv. Reg. Anim. iii. 292. Bose, Vers, ii. 255. Johnston in 
Trans. Newc. Soc. ii. 243. Dalyell in Edin. New. Phil. Journ. xvii. 
411 ; and in Proc. Brit. Assoc. 1834, 599. Templeton in Mag. Nat. 
Hist. ix. 303 A. mesembryanthemum, Ellis and Soland. Zooph. 4. 
Turt. Brit. Faun. 131. Rapp, Polyp. 52, taf. 2, fig. 1. Johnston in 
Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. 81, fig. 12 A. hemispherica, Pen. Brit. Zool. 
iv. 104. Berk. Syn. i. 186. Hogg's Stock. 30 A. rufa, Mull. Zool. 
Dan. prod. 231. Zool. Dan. tab. 23, fig. 1-5. Pen. Brit. Zool. iv. 105. 
Jameson in Wern. Mem. i. 558. Stew. Elem. i. 393. Lam. Anim. s. 
Vert. iii. 67. Stark, Elem. ii. 412. Rapp, Polyp. 53. Roget, Bridgew. 
Treat, i. 198. fig. 86, 87. A. Anemone, Pen. Brit. Zool. iv. 106. 
Hogg's Stock. 30 A. corallina, Risso, L’Europ. Merid. v. 285 — 
A. margaritifera, Templeton in Mag. Nat. Hist. ix. 304, fig. 50 Com- 
mon Actinia, Buckland, Bridgew. Treat, ii. 89, pi. 54, fig. 4 Hydra 
mesembryanthemum, Stew. Elem. ii. 451. Small red Sea-Nettle, Wal- 
lis, Hist, of Northumb. i. 374. 
Var. (1. Body paler striped longitudinally with white ; tentaeula annulated 
with white. 
Vignette, No. 29, page 205. 
Actinia viduata, Mull. Zool. Dan. prod. 231, no. 2799. Zool. Dan. pi. 
63, fig. 6-8, — copied in Encyclop. Method, tab. 72, fig. 4, 5. Johnston 
in Mag. Nat. Hist. viii. 82, fig, 13. Turt. Gmel. iv. 101. Lam. Anim. 
s. Vert. iii. 68. Bose, Vers, ii. 256. 
Hah. On rocks between tide-marks, very common. 
Body one or one and a half inch in diameter, hemispherical when 
contracted, when relaxed forming a short cylinder with a breadth 
greater than the height, of a uniform liver-colour or often olive-green, 
and sometimes streaked with blue or greenish lines, either continu- 
ous, or in spots : the base generally of a greenish colour encircled 
with an azure-blue line, but it is often also streaked with red, and the 
blue marginal line is wanting. The tentaeula, when fully extended, 
are nearly equal to the height of the body, and of the same colour. 
The tubercles within the margin of the oral disk are formed by pa- 
pillary projections of the parenchyma of the body, covered over on 
the top with a thick layer of dense blue matter : in it, as well as in 
the skin generally, minute fusiform calcareous spicula, some slenderer 
than others, may be detected in abundance with the microscope. 
In its young state, A. mesembryanthemum is liable to greater va- 
riations in colour than when mature. One of these varieties, as it 
seems to me, constitutes the A. viduata of Muller, distinguished by 
its light olive body striped with white ; while the tentaeula are pret- 
tily ornamented with white and olive green rings. This variety usu- 
ally attaches itself to shelving rooks, where it is covered over and 
concealed by a layer of sand, protruding the tentaeula through a 
small aperture at the surface opposite the mouth. On the recess of 
