124 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
raised upon a sort of protuberance. Linnaus mentions five species 
of actinie ; Rapp, twenty-three; Lamarck, twenty-five ; and now 
we can count a hundred! 
These brightly coloured zoophytes exhibit well-nigh every tint ; 
they are found white, grey, pink, red, purple, fawn, yellow, orange, 
lilac, azure, and green. Here is one beautiful species, with violet 
tentacles, pointed with white; there another, with red tentacles, 
slightly speckled with grey ; this one spreads out its green arms, 
edged with a circle of dead white; while that opens a milk-white 
top, circled with a border of pink. 
The stem, the disc, the tentacles, are not always of the same 
colour; this is the reason why these animated corollas have such 
varied hues. Here is an anemone which has a yellow body, and a 
disc of an apricot tint, surrounded by tentacles of a dead white. 
Here is a second, which has a red centre, with grey tentacles; 
here a third, where the centre is green, and the tentacles yellow. 
So Nature diversifies her numberless creations, and plays endless 
variations upon the same theme! 
The sea anemones are found attached to the rocks, often in the 
crevices and clefts. Sometimes the creature takes possession of a 
shell which is tenantless, and filling up the cavity with its body, 
spreads its tentacles out of the mouth. When they are deserted by 
the waves, they draw in their tentacles, and dry up; but when 
the sea returns, they open once more, and again expand their 
flowery heads. 
Though these animals are very adherent yet they are able to 
move themselves, though their progress is very slow. Their loco- 
motion is managed by successive contraction and loosening of the 
part by which they are fastened to the rock. When the anemone 
wishes to change its place, by an imperceptible action it stretches 
forward one side of its base, gradually drawing in the opposite; 
sometimes it draws itself along by the aid of its tentacles; thus in 
this instance they serve as feet. Professor Forbes had an actinia 
which walked upon the sides of a bottle, sticking alternately by 
its base and by its disc. So in the kingdom of nature there are 
even flowers that walk! 
At the approach of winter the anemones of our shores let go 
