OF SEA- ANEMONES. 19 



Two grave accusations — one of inaccuracy and 

 one of pedantry. Allow me to apologise and defend 

 myself. The fact is that a "popular" book on a 

 scientific subject is always in a dilemma. If it uses 

 "hard words" and goes into minute details, it fre- 

 quently ceases to be popular. If it does not select 

 this severe course of action, its vague descriptions, 

 do not enable the reader to name the animal he has 

 found, and give him no insight into its structure and 

 character. When people write about animals, plants 

 and the like, they use "hard words" for the fol- 

 lowing reasons: icorcls are only the signs of things, 

 and it is not advisable to use the same word as the 

 sign of tico things ; therefore, when we get hold of a 

 new plant or animal we have to find a word which 

 has not been previously used, and we " coin" or make 

 a word ; and since there are botanists and naturalists 

 in other lands besides our own, we use a word which 

 they can pronounce and understand, and thus the 

 Latin and Greek languages become a means of com- 

 munication in all ages and all countries. Again, we 

 get more accuracy by using a foreign language ; for 

 instance, one kind of anemone is called Actinia alba, 

 wliicli means "the white" sea-anemone; but if w^e 

 used the English form it is evident that the term 

 "white" must never be applied to an}- but this one 

 anemone : two other species are white, but we could 

 only call one so, for fear of confusion. Therefore, 

 the fact is that if we want to understand the subject 



