24.2 HISTORY OF BRITISH ZOOPHYTES. 
“Meantime, with fuller reach, and stronger swell, 
Wave after wave advanced ; 
Each following billow lifted the last foam 
That trembled on the sand with rainbow hues ; 
The living flower that rooted to the rock, 
Late from the thinner element, 
Shrunk down within its purple stem to sleep, 
Now feels the water, and again 
Awakening, blossoms out 
All its green anther-neck.”—Southey. 
+t Skin smooth. 
1. Actrnta MesemBryantHEMuM. (Plate XIII. fig. 45, 
Jrontispiece.) 
Hab. On rocks, between tide-marks. Common. 
This is to be met with on all our shores, abounding often 
in rock-pools. The older French writers call it “la plus 
petite des orties de mer,” and yet it is not a very small sea- 
nettle, being about an inch and a half in diameter. It has 
something, we have seen, of the stinging power. It is of a 
liver-colour; the base is generally greenish, with an azure 
line. Around the margin of the mouth, there is a circle of 
twenty-five azure-blue tubercles, like so many turquoise 
beads. On each side of the mouth there is a small purple 
spot, “and the mouth itself is encircled with a fringe of 
numerous very short tentacula, of a pale or roseate colour, 
