The rocky coasts of Devon and Cornwall are the chief haunts of the pretty ‘Daisy Anemone’ (Sagartia bellis), and here it is very abundant in places. This species lives in holes and crevices of the rocks, its body usually entirely hidden from view, but its dark brown disc, intersected by bright red radiating lines, and fringed with numerous small tentacles, fully exposed to view as long as it is submerged. The length of its body is always adapted to the depth of the hole or crevice in which the animal lives, and may vary from half an inch to two or three inches, the diameter of the columns being greatest where the length is least.
Fig. 96.—Sagartia pallida, Devon and Cornwall
Sometimes the ‘Daisy’ may be seen living a solitary life, having settled down in a hole just large enough to accommodate it, but more commonly it is seen in company with several others of its species, occupying a crevice in a rock pool, and often so closely packed together that the tentacles of each individual are intermingled with those of its neighbours, thus exhibiting a more or less continuous cluster or line of ‘flowers,’ each disc being from one to two or three inches in diameter when fully expanded.
On account of the peculiar positions selected by this species, it is not easily removed without injury, and hammer and chisel are almost always necessary for its removal; but if it is obtained without injury, and transferred to the indoor aquarium, but little difficulty will be found in keeping it alive and in health. It is also very prolific, and a single specimen placed in the indoor tank will frequently produce a large number of young.
The colour of S. bellis, like that of many of our anemones, is very variable, but the species may easily be recognised by the radiating lines of the disc, and the numerous small tentacles. One variety, however, deviates considerably in form, colour, and habit from the normal. It (Plate II., fig. 6) is of a dull yellow colour, and has a much less graceful form; and, instead of living in the holes and crevices of rocky coasts, where it would be washed by fresh sea water at every tide, it inhabits the muddy and fœtid waters of narrow inlets of the sea in the neighbourhood of Weymouth.
Fig. 97.—Sagartia nivea, Devon and Cornwall