THE TKUMPLET. 
157 
fig, the lower half of the column greatly attenuated, Avhile 
the upper half was as greatly distended, but with a con- 
striction between the swollen part and the trumpet-like 
expanded disk. 
The appearance of the animal varies exceedingly. Some- 
times it lies utterly flaccid and withered, appearing as if 
quite dead ; not contracted, but emptied of its water, and 
the lax membranes collapsed. Then, especially at night, 
it swells up, erects its broad disk, and stands up like a 
flower after a shower, with a noble appearance. At such 
times the tentacles are sometimes much distended, pre- 
serving their regular conical form, and are of a much lighter 
hue. They are then occasionally constricted with numerous 
close rings, and take snaky curves. At times the long inner 
tentacles are curled in ram’s-horn coils over the mouth. 
One of the individuals in my possession has forked 
tentacles ; one of these organs bifurcated at about half its 
length ; another divided near the tip into three, of which 
one ramification extended on each side horizontally, and 
the third, wdiich was much smaller, followed the original 
direction of the tentacle. This tendency is common to 
Anthea cereus, and to Sagartia viduata. 
That our AiiJtasia is tenacious of life will appear from 
the following curious rencontre, to which a specimen in the 
possession of Mr. Iloldsworth was subjected. “ Two days 
ago,” writes my friend, “ on making my customary morn- 
ing’s inspection of my family, I missed the Aiptasia. A 
diligent search in all the crevices of the rock-work having 
failed to discover it, I began to suspect foul play ; and after 
administering the stomach-pump, in the shape of a stick, 
down the throats of some fine specimens of hellis, I suc- 
ceeded in dislodging the poor lost slieep, in a shapeless 
mass of membrane and acontia, which were largely ex- 
posed ; but the animal was too much injured to enable me 
