ACTINIA. 233 
seen and appreciated. Even more than a hundred years ago, 
when little was known of their nature, and when zoophy- 
tology was yet in its infancy, before our naturalists had 
made them an object of study, more common observers had 
given them appropriate English names. Ellis knew that it 
would be understood what he meant when he spoke of them 
as sea-anemones; he says, “their tentacles, being disposed 
in regular circles, and tinged with a variety of bright, lively 
colours, very nearly represent the beautiful petals of some 
of our most elegantly fringed and radiated flowers, such as 
the carnation, marygold, and anemone.” Nay, not only 
has the resemblance been acknowledged by man, but in one 
case at least on record, it forced itself on a connoisseur who 
had more practical acquaintance with flowers than any of 
our florists or botanists. A distinguished naturalist (Mr. 
Couch) mentions, that when he was admiring the beauty of a 
sea-anemone, as on a sunny day it lay with fully expanded 
tentacula in a shallow rock-pool, a bee, ou honey intent, 
deceived by appearances, pounced upon the marine flower. 
The tentacula, being at the very surface of the water, in- 
stantly caught the unfortunate intermeddler, and in spite 
of its struggles swallowed it up. 
We wish to direct attention to these Helianthoid, or sun- 
