ANEMONE LITERATURE. 125 



ible terms, and may be employed indifFerently. In 

 1809, Spix published an account of the anatomy of the 

 Actinia, which was, however, very faulty ; its announce- 

 ment of the discovery of a nervous system has long 

 been rejected. It was not even accepted by Delle 

 Cilia je, the next writer of authority, whose Memoi'ie 

 sulla storia e notoinia dcgli animali invertebrati del 

 regno di Napoli, 1822-29,* is still quoted by syste- 

 matic writers. There are some errors in this work ; 

 among them is that of Spix, who imagined he had dis- 

 covered a vascular system ; but in spite of inaccu- 

 racies, Delle Chiaje's account is worth studying. The 

 next, and up to that time the most important publica- 

 tion, was that of Professor Eapp,-|- which may still be 

 read with profit, and was only displaced by Dr John- 

 ston's elaborate History of British Zoojyhytes ; and 

 this in turn wdll have to give way to Mr Gosse's " Mo- 

 nograph on Sea- Anemones," when that much-expected 

 work makes its appearance ;| meanwhile his Rambles 

 of a Naturalist, and his Tenby, contain valuable 



* I have not seen this book, but I found the magnificent work, 

 Descrizione e notomia degli animali invertebrati della Sicilia Cileriore 

 (published in 8 vols, folio; Naples, 1841-44), on the shelves of Mr 

 Triibner io Paternoster Row. It was too costly for an author's purse ; 

 but Mr Tiiibner, with characteristic generosity, insisted on lending it 

 to me for some weeks ; the offer was too tempting to be refused. It is 

 a book to make a naturalist languish with desire. 



'j' Ueher die Pohjpen im Allgemeinen und die Actinien ins besondere, 

 1829. This work contains three coloured plates, which were thought 

 admirable in those days, but which our progress in the art of illustra- 

 tion throws into the shade. 



J Since published. 



