Let us turn, for example, to Plate VIII., and note the appearance of the two varieties of _Actinia dianthus_—the carnation-like _Actinia_, as its name imports—and we shall easily excuse our early naturalists their pretty but erroneous fancies concerning them. This species is more subject than many others to vary in colour, even like the flower after which it is named, being found of every tone between snow-white, orange, pale scarlet, and blood red—while some specimens take duskier tints, from a dull brown to a kind of orange green. But we will describe our illustrations of this genus in regular succession, noting what is most peculiar in the subjects of each Plate. Plate VI. contains a representation of one of the last-discovered species of _Actiniæ_—one which displays a habit that distinguishes it from all its congeners hitherto described by naturalists, and which has entitled it to be classed as a separate genus, and named _Edwardsia vestita_. The generic name is from that of a well-known naturalist, and the specific name, _vestita_, from its habit of forming for itself a shell, or clothing, into which it has the faculty of retiring at pleasure; or, if an inhabitant of the shallow water, when the tide recedes, and leaves it inconveniently exposed to the air. This species, unless it have the power of quitting its shell, like some Molluscs, is of necessity permanently fixed and confined to the position in which the egg from which it was hatched was placed by the instinct of the parent, or the caprice of the waves. The other objects in Plate VI. will be described in another place. [Illustration: PLATE VII. 1. Actinia clavata. 3. Pennatula phosphorea. 4. A Shell of the Common Whelk, on which are two specimens of Balanus. 5. A group of Ascidians.] In Plate VII. we have two remarkable species; the one with drooping tentacles of dull brick-red, being a very curious variety. The species below is _Actinia clavata_, one of the most delicately-beautiful species, which, from its brilliant whiteness, at once attracts the attention.