224 Z. HELIANTHOIDA. Actinia. 



ed in any direction and greatly lengthened, they ai'e capable of being- 

 applied to every point, and adhere by suction with considerable tena- 

 city. * The food is retained in the stomach for ten or twelve hours, 

 when the undigested remains are regurgitated, enveloped in a glairy 

 fluid, not unlike the white of an egg. The size of the prey is fre- 

 quently in unseemly disproportion to the preyer, -j- being often 

 equal in bulk to itself. I had once brought me a specimen of Act. 

 gemmacea, that might have been originally two inches in diameter, 

 and that had somehow contrived to swallow a valve of Pecten maxi- 

 mus of the size of an ordinary saucer. The shell, fixed within the 

 stomach, was so placed as to divide it completely into two halves, so 

 that the body, stretched tensely over, had become thin and flattened 

 like a pancake. All communication between the inferior portion of 

 the stomach and the mouth was of course prevented, yet instead of 

 emaciating- and dying of a hytrophy, the animal had availed itself 

 of what undoubtedly had been a very untoward accident, to increase 

 its enjoyments and its chances of double fare. A new mouth, fur- 

 nished with two rows of numerous teutacula, was opened up on 

 what had been the base, and led to the under stomach : — the indivi- 

 dual had indeed become a sort of Siamese twin, but with greater in- 

 timacy and extent in its unions I 



The existence of nerves in the structure of the Actiniae is still 

 doubtful. Spix tells us, that he detected near the base and centre of 

 the body some small nodules or ganglions jjlaced in pairs, from which 

 filaments emanate towards the circumference, constituting, as he be- 

 lieves, their nervous system. Blainville asserts, however, that in 

 numerous dissections made with every possible care, he could see 

 nothing like what Spix has described and figured ; and the only part 

 that he can regard as nervous, is a sort of grey pulpy cord in the 

 margin of the labial rim. Delle Chiaje, and Mr Teale agree with 

 Blainville.J Be the fact as it may, we know that every part of the 



* According to Gaertner the animal fixes the tentacula by throwing out of their 

 whole surface " a number of extremely minute suckers, which, sticking fast to 

 the small protuberances of the skin, produce the sensation of a roughness, which 

 is so far from being painful, that it even cannot be called disagreeable." Phil. 

 Trans, v. 52. p. 76. — No such structure can be discovered. 



f " Fauces hsec animalia, subtus sacci instar penitus clausa, superne habent 



pro libitu tam patulas, ut mytulos satis magnos aliasve conchas ingurgitent, e 



quibus, modo nos fugiente, pisces extrabere, et evacuatas testas per eandem 



aperturam, ejicere riursus valent Quae testte, si majores sint, et segre per fauces 



transituras essent, Priapus non solum fauces late expandit, sed easdem, ut so- 



lemus tibialia, quasi invertit, quo spatium brevius et apertura fit latior." Bas- 



teri Opusc Subsec. i. lib. iii. 122. 



\ But Dr Grant says — " The nervous system has been long known in the 



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