THE PLUMOSE ANEMONE. 
19 
There are probably thousands of specimens of this fine 
Anemone now living in the aquariums of Great Britain and 
Ireland ; and a large number of these have been several 
years in captivity. They continue to live and flourish, 
expanding and erecting themselves with the greatest free- 
dom ; nor do they seem at all affected by the turbidity of 
the water, provided it be free from impurity. I have had 
some specimens of rather large size continue for many 
months in water so loaded with green Alga spores as to be 
almost opaque, yet diu-ing the whole period they appeared 
perfectly at ease, and even increased their number by 
fissiparous division. It is the frequent habit of the species 
to crawl up the perpendicular side of the tank which it 
inhabits, till it reaches the water’s edge, a situation which 
seems particularly grateful to it ; for there it remains from 
week to week, daily (or rather nightly) projecting its 
columnar form in a horizontal direction, at the very surface, 
and then expanding its beautiful frills, so that the air 
bathes a part both of its body and its tentacles. 
I have never seen this Anemone increase its kind by 
proper generation, that is, by the discharge of ova, or of 
young. But no species more freely increases by sponta- 
neous division. 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 glide slowly 
along the surface on which it rests ; — the glass side of the 
tank, for instance. 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 over- 
come it. The fragments so left soon contract, become 
smooth, and spherical or oval in outline, and in tlie course 
of a week or fortnight may be seen each furnished with a 
margin of tentacles and a disk — transformed, in fact, into 
c 2 
