Journal 



OF THE 



NEW-YORK MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



Vol. IV. OCTOBER, 1888. No. 4. 



LIVING ACTINIA, OR SEA-ANEMONES. 



BY WILLIAM E. DAMON. 

 {Read June i^th, i883.) 



These animals, inhabiting only salt water, are found upon 

 almost every sea-coast in the world, attached to rocks, logs, 

 algce, and any object that will serve them as anchorage. They 

 can be found better at low water, on the rocks or piles, which 

 they sometimes so thickly cover as to hide the object, on which 

 they are tenaciously adhering by their suctorial base, appearing 

 like a living flower-garden. 



It would be difficult to exaggerate in speaking of the beauty 

 of these flower-beds, as they may well be called. The vivid 

 tints which they often display, and the gracefulness of their 

 form, with their moving tentacles ever on the alert for food, 

 make them always objects of fascinating study. 



Their history is long and interesting. However, I do not 

 propose to enter into minute histological detail, for the time 

 would not allow this, and such detail would be out of place in 

 a general sketch like the present. I will only say a few words 

 more particularly about their life and habits. 



For a long time, even until a few years ago, it was questioned 

 whether they were plants or animals. But that these very 

 interesting objects are animals there now is no doubt. Their 

 structure consists of a sac, divided by vertical partitions into 

 distinct cavities or chambers. These partitions are not all 

 formed at once in the Anemone. First there are six chambers, 

 all opening into a corresponding number of tentacles, then come 

 twelve, twenty-four, forty-eight, and so on, each division mean- 



