148 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



are frequent in France/"" will Anemones long escape the 

 frying-pan ? 



It was hinted just now that the Anemone was but 

 an indifferent parent. Having given birth to her oflF- 

 spring, she spends no anxious hours over the episodes 

 of infancy. When I say She, I might as well say He, 

 or It, for no distinction of sex exists, as we shall see 

 presently ; and probably it is to this cause that the 

 parental indifference may be traced ; how, indeed, can 

 maternal tenderness and ceaseless vigilance be expected, 

 when the maternal individual is as yet undeveloped ? 

 The Actiniae are viviparous. Indeed I suspect they 

 are only viviparous, and not at all oviparous. Rymer 

 Jones seems to hesitate on the j)oint, adding, " but it 

 is asserted by numerous authorities that the young are 

 not unfrequently born alive." I not only assert this, 

 but ask whether any one has ever seen the contrary ? 

 It startled me, however, when, on opening an Anemone, 

 I for the first time saw a young one drop out, and im- 

 mediately expand its tentacles ; and some days after- 

 wards, as I was carrying home a lovely " Gem," I saw 

 first one, then two, three, four, seven young ones issue 

 from its mouth, fix themselves at the bottom of the vase, 

 and make themselves at home ; they were of various 

 sizes, and in various stages of development. Since then, 

 I have repeatedly witnessed this mode of birth ; and one 

 day, seeing something in the inside of the tentacle of a 

 Daisy, I snipped the tentacle off, and found a young 

 Daisy there. Some writers imagine that the young 



* See Physiology of Common Life, vol. i. p. 162. 



