THE SEA-ANEMONE. 57 



Now it is remarkable that the proportion of individuals which 

 are produced in this way is so great, when compared with 

 the number of those which arise directly from eggs ; and one 

 might almost say that the latter process is the exceptional one, 

 and the former the normal mode of reproduction. 



Another instance of the budding of independent individuals 

 among the Zoophyta is exemplified in the common Sea- Anem- 

 one, or Animal-flower, so-called. This is a much more highly 

 organized animal than Hydra, although it belongs to a group 

 which, as a whole, is more simple in structure than that of 

 which Hydra is a member. The latter is classed among the 

 jelly-fishes, " sea-blubbers," " sting-bladders," &c., but the former 

 is one of the Coral group. The body of the Sea- Anemone, which 

 we have represented here (fig. 28), under the name of Metridium 



Fig. 28. 



marg-'tnatum, has the appearance of a cylinder cut straight 

 across at each end, and at both of these points covered by a 

 membrane. One end (A) is bordered by an undulating fringe 

 (a) of numerous short finger-shaped tentacles, and the other 

 extreme (P) is more or less broadened like the base of a pillar, 



Fig. 28. Metridium marginatum. M. Edw. natural size. A Sea-Anem- 

 one attached to the shell (b) of a mussel. From Boston harbor. A, the anterior 

 end ; P, the posterior end ; a, the fringed disc, covered by pointed feelers, and 

 pierced by the scalloped, oblong mouth ; c, </, e,f, young budding. Original. 



