THE PLUMOSE ANEMONE. 17 



many of the same size associated together ; their habit, — 

 hanging pendent from the midst of the acorn-shells and 

 sponges, " like a rain-drop ready to fall ;" — all agree 

 exactly with the young of dianthus. My friend, in a 

 private letter, tells me, moreover, that he is certain they 

 were immature, from the length of the tentacles ; and that 

 his brother suspected them to be the young of dianthus, 

 because he found old diantlius at the same spot. There 

 can be no doubt that Mr. Charles Jordan is right. 



A very heterodox notion seems to have obtained cur- 

 rency, that this species differs from other Actinice in that it 

 is incapable of altering its place, when once it has selected 

 it. Dr. Johnston says, — and his statement is the more 

 surprising since he had seen " several hundreds of indivi- 

 duals," — " As A. dianthus is a permanently attached species, 

 and cannot be removed without organic injury to the base, 

 it has some claim to be made the type of a genus." (Brit. 

 Zooph. p. 234). If this were correct, the claim (which I 

 have allowed on other grounds) would indeed be well 

 founded ; but the statement is erroneous. Sir John Dalyell, 

 again, while allowing that dianthus shifts its position spon- 

 taneously, affirms that it cannot be compelled to do so with 

 impunity. In illustration of this assertion he mentions the 

 case of a very large one, which was attached to a stone too 

 wide to be put into any of his vessels. In this emergency 

 he reversed the stone, laying it across the top of a jar, so 

 that the Anemone should hang suspended in the sea-water. 

 He had hoped that the animal would voluntarily quit its 

 hold, and descend into the jar, but it did not ; and, after 

 stretching itself for some days, it ruptured its body across 

 the centre, apparently by its own weight, and died.* 



Notwithstanding these excellent authorities, however, I 



* Rare and Rem. Anim. of Scotl., 235. 

 C 



