ACTINIA. 241 
still, should the vessel be gradually emptied, or the water 
evaporate so as to leave the animals totally or partially dry, 
they never lower the base for immersion in the residue— 
not even when the tentacula can reach its surface. They 
are very long-lived, Sir J. G. Dalyell having kept them in 
jars ten, twelve, and twenty years. It is not a small injury 
that deprives them of life, for, like the Hydra, they have the 
power of renewing mutilated parts, and of increasing in 
number by being cut in pieces; but the worthy old baronet, 
from whom we have so often drawn information, very pro- 
perly adds, ‘‘ the cruel experiments proving these properties 
are most reprehensible.” 
Well is it for our marine marygolds, anemones, and 
China-asters, that our British gourmands have not learned to 
think them as grateful to the palate as they are pleasant to 
the eye. The Italian epicures boil many kinds of Actinie 
in sea-water. They have a shivering texture when thus pre- 
pared, somewhat like calf’s-foot jelly ; their smell is somewhat 
like that of a warm crab or lobster; and when eaten with 
sauce, they form, to their taste, a savoury repast. As long 
as we can get a good herring or haddock out of the sea, we 
shall allow, I suspect, the most tempting of our Actinie to 
bloom unscathed in all their beauty. 
R 
