ACTINIA. 241 



stillj should the vessel be gradually emptied, or the water 

 evaporate so as to leave the animals totally or partially dry, 

 they never lower the base for immersion in the residue — 

 not even when the tentacula can reach its surface. They 

 are very long-lived. Sir J. G. Dalyell having kept them in 

 jars ten, twelve, and twenty years. It is not a small injury 

 that deprives them of life, for, like the Hydra, they have the 

 power of renewing mutilated parts, and of increasing in 

 number by being cut in pieces ; but the worthy old baronet, 

 from whom we have so often drawn information, very pro- 

 perly adds, '' the cruel experiments proving these properties 

 are most reprehensible."*^ 



Well is it for our marine mary golds, anemones, and 

 China-asters, that our British gourmands have not learned to 

 thiuk them as grateful to the palate as they are pleasant to 

 the eye. The Italian epicures boil many kinds of Actinice 

 in sea- water. They have a shivering texture when thus pre- 

 pared, somewhat like calf^s-foot jelly ; their smeU is somewhat 

 like that of a warm crab or lobster ; and ^^ hen eaten with 

 sauce, they form, to their taste, a savoury repast. As long 

 as we can get a good herring or haddock out of the sea, we 

 shall allow, I suspect, the most tempting of our Actinm to 

 bloom unscathed in ail their beauty. 



R 



