Actinia. 
Z. HELIANTHOIDA, 
217 
At Hastings in Sussex, Ellis. Tenbigh, Wales, Adams. Frith 
of Forth, Dr Coldstream. Berwick Bay, common. 
When contracted the body is of a thick short subcylindrical form, 
deeply wrinkled in two or three places, about three inches long, and 
one-half of that in diameter, but when fully expanded about live 
inches : the skin is quite smooth, and of a uniform whitish, cream or 
flesh-colour. The centre of the oral disk is ornamented with a circle 
of white bands radiating from the mouth, and the transparency of 
the skin here permits us to see the lamellse running across the cir- 
cumference with their narrow colourless interspaces. From these 
interspaces the tentacula originate ; the largest about one inch long, 
watery, white, tapered, smooth, irregularly dispersed, and very nu- 
merous. They are all placed between the mouth and the margin, 
which is encircled with a dense fringe of inimitable beauty, com- 
posed of innumerable short tentacula or filaments forming a thick 
furry border. 
I have seen specimens of this species, which is certainly as Muller 
says “ actiniarum pulcherrima,” from the size of a split pea to fully 
five inches in diameter, and have found it, in all the intermediate 
sizes, uniform in shape and colour, but others have found it variable 
in these respects. It is strictly gregarious, and the larger individuals 
are generally surrounded by a multitude of small and middle-sized 
ones, which form very pleasing groups. From this gregarious habit 
it is subject to monstrosities, two or three occasionally uniting and 
coalescing into one body, of which Dicquemare has described an ex- 
ample. 
“ This species is good to eat,” according to Dicquemare ; and his 
testimony may be strengthened by the authority of Plancus, who 
says of his “ IJrtica soluta caryophyllum referens,” — a synonyme 
probably of A. Dianthus, *■ — “ hsec more ostrearum coquitur, et una 
cum ipsis, quibus, ut dixi, frequentissime hseret, comeditur.” Plane. 
de Conch, min. not. 43, tab. 4, fig, 6. t 
No one who has studied the species but will, I think, assent to the 
conjecture of Cuvier that the A. Dianthus of Ellis is a mere variety 
of the A. plumosa of subsequent authors, the former having had the 
oral disc deeper lobed than is usual from peculiarity of position or 
* If this opinion is correct, and to me the thing seems indisputable, then the 
Actinia Judaic a, Lin. Syst. 1088, and of all other systematists who have fol- 
lowed him, must be added to the aliases of A. Dianthus. 
f In reference to these edible Actinia I may here remark that the Anemonict 
edidis of Risso, which, according to Rapp, is synonymous with the Anthea Ce- 
reus of this work, furnishes the dish called Rastegna, a favourite in Provence. 
“ Nostrates vero hoc cibo delectari nondum comperi.” Raster. 
