OF SEA-ANEMONES. 95 



I am rather ashamed of writing anj'thing which is 

 so loosely determinative of the question, but I do 

 write it because no one else has written anj'thing 

 which is even equally satisfactory, at least to my 

 mind. 



Let us be at any rate consistent. If colour be ad- 

 mitted to be characteristic of species, then let us 

 allow the "tiger" and the " white-tentacled thick- 

 skinned " to be as much species as the " snowy" and 

 the " orange - disced " anemones, but if identity of 

 form be considered similarly characteristic let us 

 then speak of all those anemones which agree in 

 form as individuals of a species, and make the 

 mere distinction of colour to constitute, uniformly, 

 varieties. 



If a " strawberry" would only be good enough to 

 breed a "tiger," or a "snowy" an "orange-disced" 

 anemone, or if they would be sufficiently considerate 

 to turn one into the other in our anemone -tanks, we 

 might have better data to reason upon. But as 

 things are, we only generalise a type from the 

 various individuals which are presented to our 

 notice ; and in a given number of such individuals 

 SHAPE and HABIT do seem to be so distinctly recog- 

 nisable and so definitely limited, and colour to 

 be so varying, variable and interchangeable in ob- 

 jects otherwise apparently identical, that, until 

 further observation be recorded, I cannot help 



