198 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



of aquatic animals of all kinds ; they swallow 

 crabs and shell-fish, the hard and indigestible 

 parts of which they afterwards disgorge. 



Sea anemones, like other members of the 

 zoophyte family, possess remarkable powers of 

 bearing mutilation. If the tentacula are cut off, 

 others speedily take their place. If the body of 

 the animal be cut into two parts lengthwise, each 

 part will become perfect, and two separate acti- 

 nias will be the result. Even if all the original 

 animal be destroyed except a minute fragment 

 of the base, this fragment will be sufficient to 

 originate a new and perfect specimen. 



A very singular instance is related by an 

 excellent naturalist of the marvellous manner in 

 which this creature is enabled to accommodate 

 itself to circumstances of the most apparently 

 untoward character. " I had once brought to me 

 a specimen of the Actinia gemmacea that might 

 have been originally two inches in diameter, and 

 that had somehow contrived to swallow a shell 

 of Pecten maximus, the common scallop, of the 

 size of an ordinary saucer. The shell fixed within 

 the stomach was so placed as to divide it com- 

 pletely into two parts, so that the body, stretched 

 tensely over, had become thin and flattened like 

 a pancake. All communication between the in- 

 ferior portion of the stomach and the mouth was 

 of course prevented; yet, instead of emaciating 

 and dying of atrophy, the animal had availed 

 itself of what had undoubtedly been a very un- 

 toward accident, to increase its enjoyments and 



