90 CLASS II. 
Sp. Hughea Savignyi, Palythoa Savignyi Aupouin, Déser. de V Egypte, Poly- 
pes, Tab. 11. fig. 1. ' 
Family XIII. Aetinina. Polyps affixing themselves by the 
part opposite to the mouth, loosening spontaneously and creeping 
or swimming, solitary, oviparous or viviparous, never dividing 
spontaneously, rarely gemmiparous. 
Actinia L. Body conical or cylindrical, with mouth at the top 
simple, surrounded by tentacles numerous, cylindrical, radiant im 
one or several rows, with base discoidal. 
Sea Anemonies. Comp. on these animals, Basrer Vatwurkundige 
uitspanningen, 1. 1762, bl. 138—142 ; Dicquemarn, Lssay towards 
the elucidating of the history of the Sea-anemonies, Philos. Transact. 
1773, p. 361, 1775, p. 207, 1777, p. 56; Rapp, Ueber die Polypen 
im Algemeinen und die Actinien insbesondere, 1829; A. A. Brrt- 
HOLD, Zergliederung der see-anemonen und namentlich der Actinia 
coriacea in Beitrige zur Anatomie, Zootomie und Physiol. Gottingen, 
1831. 8vo. s. 1—19; J. F. Brann, Prodromus Descriptionis Ani- 
malium ab H. Mrrrensto tn orbis terran. circumnavigatione observa- 
torum Fase. 1. Petropoli 1835, 4to. pp. J—17 &e. 
The Anemonies live on Crustacea, conchifera &c., swallow even. 
oceasionally large mussels, reject the shell, when the fleshy part has 
been extracted and consumed, by the mouth, and evert. for this 
purpose their body, which they do likewise whenever they feel 
hunger. Their reproductive power is almost as great as that of 
Hydra; if they be divided transversely, new tentacles after a few 
weeks are seen on the inferior portion, and each half becomes a 
perfect creature ; thus they may be propagated by fission, but 
propagation by spontaneous fission does not appear to occur 
naturally amongst Aectinie: usually it is effected by ova which get 
into the stomach from the ovaries and are there developed ; when 
the young ones come out of the egg they are rejected by the mouth. 
That the actinic are viviparous was formerly observed by Basten. 
The young have at first fewer arms or tentacles than are after- 
wards present. 
These animals, with their coronet of tentacles, resemble com- 
pound or double flowers ; at the same time many also attract by 
their lively colours. Most of them are very sensitive of the 
stimulus of light, and the brighter the day spread their tentacles 
the more. Of Actinea depressa Ravr observed that it immediately 
contracted when sun-light fell wpon it. 
