





INTRODUCTION. 



Though the following " History of the British Sea- 

 anemones and Corals " is intended for general readers, it 

 seems desirable that it should be accompanied by a brief 

 resume of what is known concerning the anatomy and 

 physiology of this order of animals. I have commenced the 

 text of the work with a general description of the con- 

 stituent parts of their bodies, in order to establish a 

 determinate orismology for the class, and shall here assume 

 that the reader is sufficiently familiar with the various 

 organs, and the terms by which they are indicated. 



The Sea-anemones present a low grade of animal 

 existence, and are commonly represented as exceedingly 

 simple in structure. The term " Animal-flowers," by 

 which they were known to the early observers, and which 

 has been perpetuated in the Greek equivalent "Anthozoa," 

 applied to the class by some modern naturalists, has been 

 thought to express the fact, that a vegetable type of 

 organization is scarcely less proper to them than an animal 

 one. It is, however, to the accidental resemblance which 

 these beautiful forms often bear to a highly-coloured and 

 many-petaled flower, that the name owes its appropriate- 

 ness, rather than to any close assimilation to the vegetable 

 structure. The Sea-anemone is an indubitable animal, and 

 its organization is more complex than is usually supposed. 

 This will be seen as we proceed with the successive ex- 

 amination of the organs.* 



* In all cases in which I do not adduce any other aiithority, the following 

 statements may be considered as given on the authority of my own dissec- 

 tions and observations. 



