2 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ers of the ocean would insist on behaving themselves in divers ways, 

 looking strangely in the direction of sentient things, albeit their plant- 

 like aspect looked contrariwise. Could Nature, just here, Janus-like, 

 look two ways at once ? Might it not be that these mysterious things 

 were the habitants of a certain border-land of life ? Another empiri- 

 cism a generalization as splendid as that of the fisherman. So in com- 

 placent wisdom they called them zoophytes, namely 



Animal-Plants. Time, and a love of truth, will set a good deal 

 right that seems inveterately wrong. Even this brilliant compromise 

 must yield to the verdict that accrues from the patient study of facts 

 generously collected and carefully collated. So this Janus myth, 

 the zoophyte, which had become a cant word in science, turns out to 

 be of no value as representing a fact in Nature. Thoiigh flower-forms 

 they were, yet they were really animate things, and capable of acts 

 indicative of will. 



Our object now is to say something of one of these flower-like types 

 of marine life, namely, the Sea- Anemone. It is significant, as showing 

 the suggestiveness of these creatures, that, however diverse the no- 

 menclature of science may be in regard to them, it is often almost 

 poetical, and the words used are always expressive, and even possess 

 pictorial significance. De Blainville named them Zoantharia, from 

 which comes Animal Flower. Dr. Johnson's term took a wider lati- 

 tude, and, although quite formidable-looking, and not in the best 

 taste, was very significant. He gave the name, Zoophyte helian- 

 thoidea, which is to say, the Sunflower-like animal-plant. In these 

 terms the animal nature and the flower-like form are intended. The 

 creature is really a polyp, a soft, almost pulpy, sac-like structure, 

 with a fringe of tentacles, like a halo of rays, around the upper end ; 

 in the centre of the circular fringe, the mouth, or oral aperture, being 

 situated. Hence it is often spoken of as an actinia, which really means 

 possessing rays. The word is now worked into another word, Actino- 

 zoa, meaning rayed-animals, that is to say, animals with rays around 

 an oral disk. But the term is used to designate a class ; hence it in- 

 cludes all the polyps, those that construct coral, and the others. This 

 class is again divided into several orders, one of which is named Zocm- 

 tharia, or, as it is sometimes called, the Helianthoid polyps. It is in 

 this order that the actinia proper is found; and, therefore, it is there 

 that we must find our sea-anemone. 



Having found for this pretty object, in a system of science, " a 

 local habitation and a name," let us see if we can make out the struct- 

 ure of a sea-anemone, or, as it is often called, an Actinia. 



Taken in the hand, the sea-anemone imparts a slippery feeling, 

 and it seems to have the consistency of leather. To get at its precise 

 form, look at the cut given of Actinia rosea, a British species. Now, 

 please follow closely our description a little while. As the actinia 

 erects itself, attached to a rock or stone, it looks like one of the purses 



