Example, Minya. cyanea.
2. Mosehata, itenieri, vermiform and free, and, according to De Blainville, incrusted with adhering substances. It is said to lice floating in the sea. Both Ehrenberg and Intjardin have supposed that there was some mistake regarding this genus, and that it might have been founded on specimens of A clinic (Criltrina) Wis. It is more probably however identical with the Ed ire rdsia of M. de Quatrefages (' Aunales des Sciences Naturelles; 1842), founded on some remarkable vermiform A diniathe which are invested with a sort of tube to which sand and gravel adhere. Three species of Ed wardsia have been discovered by the author of the genus on the west coast of France, and a fourth iu the Grecian Archipelago by Profeseor E. Forbes, the habits of which are very remarkable. It can moth up and down freely in its mem branona tube, and when kept for some time in sea-water, the tube having been injured, it came out of it altogether and moved about twisting its body in the manner of some A and ides. On being supplied with sand and gravel, it proceeded to construct another tube, rolling itself up in the sand and secreting glutinous matter for the membranous lining. It eats voraciously, and attacks such animals as come within reach of its tentacula It lives buried in sand, and in places a few inches below sea-level.
3. Iluarithus, Forbes (`Annals of Natural History,' vol. v., 1840.) A single species only is known. The body is free, and tapers posteriorly to a point, which is probably buried in the soft mud among which it lives. The mouth 'Is round, and surrounded by nu merous long fihiform tentacula. The Iluanth us. Scot icus was found in four fathoms of water in Loch Ryan.
4. Actinia, Linnaeus, now re stricted to such species as have simple tubular retractile tenta cula, and adhere by a broad base. Ehrenberg has separated such as have a glandular epidermis, under the name of Crib-rhea. From the glands protrude long filaments, the uses of which are unknown. The tentacula of all the species are (contrary to the supposition of Ehrenberg) perforated at their extremities. The subgenus
A damsic has been constituted, by Professor E. Forbes, for the reception of the curious parasitical A dinia mandata, which envelopes the fuouthe of dead shells, generally selecting such as have been previously invested by the A leyonidium cc/ciliation. As such shells are frequently. inhabited at the same time by the Hermit Crab, not a few naturalists have mistaken the coinci dence for sonic necessary and mysterious friendship of the zoophyte for the crustacean.
A large number of species of Ji cadre have been described, but many -of them not with sufficient distinctness, and it is probable many more will be ultimately ascertained. The following are common species on the British coasts : The Stout-Armed Animal-Flower (Adjoin cramiconcis, Muller) is three inches broad, with a leathery unequal envelope of an orange colour; the tentacula in two ranges, usually marked with a rose coloured ring. Its abode is commonly in the sand.
The Purple Animal-Flower (A clinic Mesembryanthemuml has a soft skin, finely striated, usually of a beautiful purple, often clouded with green. The tentacula, to the member of hundred, vary much in colour. When the tide retires this species may be seen ornamenting the sea-rocks with its beautiful colours—" purple, violet, blue, pink, yellow, and green, like so many flowers," says 1L Lamoureux, "in a • meadow." The White Animal-Flower (Actinia Dianthus, Ellis) is four or more inches broad, of n white colour ; the margins of the mouth are expanded into lobes, all furnished with innumerable tentacula. There is an inner row of these, still larger.
In his 'British Zoophytes,' Dr. Johnstone enumerates twenty species of the genus Actinia, as found in the British islands. It is, however, a question whether all those are really different species; as few animals have a greater tendency to assume different forms than the members of this genus.