220 
Z. HELI ANTHOID A. 
Anthea. 
fervesce with acids. It is insoluble in boiling- water and in alcohol, 
but dissolves slowly in acids, and in solutions of the alkalies. Its 
general appearance may be compared to that of the cases of Tubularia 
indivisa, except in point of colour.” 
“ The case thus formed bv the old shell and the horny membrane, 
and covered by the Actinia, I have always found inhabited by a va- 
riety of the hermit-crab.” f£ Its natural history is perhaps doubt- 
ful. Is the horny case secreted by the Actinia ? Or is it the dead 
axis of some zoophyte, like that which covers old Buccina (Aleyoni- 
um echinatum, FI.), and which I have found forming- an extension 
of the body- whorl of the Turbo littoreus, also inhabited by the Pa- 
gurus ? Or, is it likely that the old shell, with a young crab in it, 
may have been swallowed by the Actinia ; that the crab may have 
forced its way through the walls of the stomach, and the integuments 
of the latter, and that, the Actinia then secreting a peculiar mem- 
brane to defend its base, the crab may have found itself provided with 
a habitation suited to its wants ? To this last supposition an objec- 
tion is found in the fact, that the full grown shell of Trochus Magus 
forms sometimes the base of the horny case, and this shell is too large 
to enter the mouth of the Actinia. It seems to be probable that the 
horny membrane is produced by the Actinia ; and that its formation 
presents a striking instance of the operation of that beautiful law of 
Nature which makes the habits of one animal subservient to the 
wants of another.” 
Bohadsch, in his work de Animalibus marinis, has described a spe- 
cies nearly allied, if not identical with the above, under the name of 
Medusa palliata, p. 135 t. 11. f. 1 : which is probably identical with 
the Actinia picta of Risso, L’Europ, Merid. v. 286. See also a no- 
tice by Professor Jameson in Edin. New. Phil. Journ. July 1830, 
p. 332. 
20. Anthea,* Johnston. 
Character. Body cylindraceous , adhering by a broad base : 
tentacula. disposed in circles round the mouth , elongated , taper- 
ed and incapable of being retracted within the body. 
* From dvQos — a flower : the name borrowed from Drayton — 
“ Anthea, of the flowers, that hath the general charge, 
“ And Syrinx of the reeds, that grow upon the marge.” 
The genus was first proposed, and indifferently characterized by Risso under the 
name of Anemonia, which being the same as Anemone must be rejected, for if 
new generic names formed by the mispelling of old ones were tolerated, confu- 
sion and barbarism would soon be the result. 
