ATS'THOZOA. 61 



with some potent venom, as a small animal once 

 seized by them dies, even should it escape from 

 their tenacious grasp. 



The Actiniae, like the Hydra, seem to defy the 

 effects of mutilation ; they may be cut in two perjjen- 

 dicularly or across, and each cutting will soon fur- 

 nish forth the wanting parts, and present itself in all 

 respects well and hearty. — ^Ir. Gosse. 



In some species, when a large individual has been 

 a good while adherent to one spot, and at length 

 chooses to change its quarters, it does so by causing 

 its base to move slowly along the surface on which 

 it rests. But it frequently happens that small 

 irregular fragments of the edge of the base are left 

 behind, as if their adhesion had been so strong that 

 the animal found it easier to tear its own tissues 

 apart than to overcome it. The fragments so left 

 soon contract, become smooth and spherical, or oval 

 in outline ; and in the course of a week or a fortnight, 

 may be seen each furnished with a margin of ten- 

 tacles, and a disk, transformed in fact into perfect 

 though small Actiniae. Occasionally a separated piece, 

 more iiTegularly jagged than usual, will, in contracting, 

 form two smaller fragments, each of which becomes 

 a separate animal. Dr. T. Strethill Wright cut off 

 a minute piece of the base of a Sea Anemone; the 

 part immediately receded from the parent, and in 

 three weeks became a perfect Actinia ; he then cut 

 pieces from these with the same result, and ultimately 

 got fourteen from the orginal one. 



The ordinary mode of reproduction in these 

 zoophytes is by minute germs or ova, which are to be 

 found suspended in dense clusters in the interior of 

 the animal ; these escape into the creature's stomach, 

 and are discharged into the sea through the mouth. 

 Some of the Actiniae are exceedingly prolific, pro- 

 ducing from 150 to oOO young in a single day. The 

 characteristic form and markings of the parent are 

 distinctly recognisable in the newly-born progeny, 

 the principal distinction, besides the difference of 



