84 THE MARINE AQUARIUM. 
disturbed, it is sure to perish. When removed from its 
native ‘‘oozy bed” it should be kept on the stone or shell 
to which it is found attached, until it floats off of its own 
accord, and fixes itself elsewhere. When handled it 
throws out a number of white threads, which are after- 
wards withdrawn. 
CHAPTER VI. 
WHAT IS AN ANEMONE? 
Ir is very strange that where the animal and vegetable 
kingdoms meet, the forms should assume such close 
resemblances to each other, as to make it frequently a 
matter of difficulty to determine to which of the two 
great departments some special specimen shall be assigned, 
Here are the lovely sea-flowers—flowers only in name and 
appearance—representing the lowest links of animal life 
and pointing to that last link where the animal and the 
vegetable blend into one, bearing all the outward resem- 
blances to flowers from which they take their appropriate 
names, yet all of them strictly animals, endowed with 
volition, and in their general organization assimilating to 
the extensive series of zoological orders which stand 
above and beneath them. The sea anemones are animals 
of the lowest class—zoophytes of the great Cuverian 
division of RapiaTa. It is in this division that ani- 
mation is seen to tremble and flicker in the socket, and 
to become gradually extinguished as we descend the 
