A METAMORPHOSIS. 27 



detached and secured your Actinia without injury. 

 But how unlike its former self, when you were desirous 

 of making its closer acquaintance, is it now ! A little 

 hard glohose knob of flesh, not so big as a schoolboy's 

 marble, is the creature that just now expanded to the 

 sun's rays a lovely disk of variegated hues, wdth a 

 diameter greater than that of a Spanish dollar. It is 

 moreover covered w^ith tenacious w^hite slime, which 

 exudes from it faster than you can clear it away ; and 

 altogether its appearance is any thing but inviting. 

 You throw it into a jar of water, which of course you 

 have with you when collecting living zoophytes ; and 

 thus bring it home, w^hen you transfer it to a tumbler 

 or other suitable vessel of clear sea-water freshly 

 drawn. And here let us watch its changes; — which, 

 however, w^ill not be effected immediately ; for it wdll 

 not expand itself in all its original beauty until it has 

 taken a fresh attachment for its base, which will not 

 in all probability be for a day or two at least. 



The body or stem of Actinia hellis is more or less 

 cylindrical generally; though subject to some change 

 in this respect, for it is occasionally a little enlarged, 

 as it approaches the disk; the sucking base is slightly 

 larger than the diameter of the body, which in speci- 

 mens of an inch-and-a-half expanse, may be about half 

 an inch. The length of the body varies much, accord- 

 ing to the depth of the cavity in which the animal 

 lives, for it must expand its disk at the surface. In 

 the open w^ater in a vase, when it appears at home, it 

 may commonly be about an inch from the base to the 

 expansion of the disk, but I have a beautiful specimen 

 before my eye at this moment, which has stretched 



