VI 
PREFACE. 
by Dr. Johnston has hitherto been the Enghsh naturalist’s only 
guide to the study of these creatures ; and notwithstanding the 
value of this work in . many points, the almost utter worthless- 
ness of their specific characters has been often confessed. That 
' excellent zoologist lived on a coast where the Anemones are feebly 
represented ; and hence his jjersonal acquaintance with species was 
very small, or the result woidd doubtless have been different. 
The elaborate “ Histoire Naturelle des Coralliaires ” of M. 
Mdne-Edwards is liable to the same objection. A work of 
immense research, labour, and patience, it bears evidence in every 
page of being the produce of tire museum and the closet, not of 
the aquarium and the shore. With those species which possess 
no stony skeleton, the learned author evidently had no acquaint- 
ance, — or next to none ; — and hence he has merely reproduced 
the words of his authorities in all their vagueness ; while the 
distribution of the species into genera and families appears so 
full of manifest error to one personally familiar with the animals 
in a living state, that I have not attempted to folloAv his 
arrangement. 
I have been compelled, therefore, to draw up the characters of 
my subjects de novo ; and in doing so I have resorted to nature 
itself ; I have studied the living animals. For the last eight 
years I have searched the most prolific parts of the British shores, 
— the coast of Dorset, South and ISTorth Devon, and South 
Wales ; and have moreover, as the following pages show, had 
poured into my aquaria the productions of almost every other 
part of our coasts, — from the Channel Isles to the Shetlands. 
For these last I am indebted to the kindness of many zealous 
scientific friends, whose names appear in this volume, and to 
whom I here express my grateful obligation ; especially distin- 
guishing ]\Ir. F. H. West of Leeds, and the Rev. W. Gregor 
of Macduff, as pre-eminent in their contributions . 
The result is that seventy-five species find their places in 
these pages, five of which are merely indicated, leaving seventy 
good species, exclusive of the Lucernariadce. Of these twenty- 
