VORACITY OF THE ANEMONE. 133 



qiient naturalists." Yes, Dr Johnston once saw it ; I 

 also witnessed an Anthea moving thus ; but I suspect 

 it is only the Anthea which has the power, and this it 

 probably owes to its more solid tentacles.* 



Again the question recurs, How then do we know 

 the Anemone to be an animal ? — in other words, what 

 characteristic marks guide zoologists in classing it in 

 that division ? I really know of none but purely ana- 

 tomical marks."]- These, however, suffice, and if you 

 please we will continue to speak of the Anemone as an 

 animal, and, what is more, a very carnivorous animal, 

 eating most things that come within reach, from limpets 

 to worms, from fish to roast beef It has even a repu- 

 tation for voracity, not to say gourmandise ; in the 

 matter of shell-fish it would put even Dando to the 

 blush. Dr Johnston, in his valuable History of British 

 Zoophytes, relates this anecdote : " I had once brought 



* Rapp, loc. cit. p. 44, says he has often witnessed it ; but he only 

 mentions the Anthea as possessing the power. Aristotle, as we have 

 seen, makes special mention of it. 



't'lt is unnecessary to particularise these anatomical marks, which will 

 occur to the mind of every student, as belonging exclusively to that 

 division of animated beings which manifest the group of phenomena 

 baptised by the name of Animality. Wherever you find muscular 

 tissue, or an alimentary canal, you are absolutely certain that nothing 

 belonging to what finds its place in the group of marks which indicate 

 the vegetable kingdom, is before you. In function there is often con- 

 siderable resemblance between Plant and Animal ; but in structure the 

 differences early manifest themselves, growing greater as the scale 

 ascends. Although, therefore, at the bottom of the scale no dis- 

 tinguished characteristic isolates animals from plants, as we ascend 

 the scale we find many definite marks by which the two groups may 

 be known. 



