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CHAPTER Vll. 



THE AQUARIUM AND ITS INMATES. 



' 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, 

 Shrank down within its purple stem to sleep, 

 Now feels the water, and again 

 Awakening, blossoms out 

 All its green anther necks." 



THAT is no imaginary scene, good reader, but a genuine sketch 

 from nature the picture of an every-day fact in sea-side natural 

 history. The " living flower rooted to the rock," is a Sea- Ane- 

 mone ; and so faithfully is the portrait given, that you can pro- 

 nounce unhesitatingly as to the particular species which sat for 

 the likeness. And it is no wonder that the author of Thalaba 

 was wanned up into poetic fervour at sight of the beauty ; for 

 the owner of those " green anther necks " is one of the loveliest 

 of its lovely race, and many a time has roused people, far more 

 unimpressible than poets are wont to be, to a pitch of temporary 

 enthusiasm. 



The Actinias, or Sea- Anemones, are the great ornaments of the 

 Aquarium, and have now become such general favourites, that 

 there are comparatively few well-read observant people who 

 have not to some extent made their acquaintance. It is only 

 a few years since, however, that these animals were all but un- 

 known even to the regular habitues of oxir watering-places ; and 

 so little were they understood by naturalists themselves, that 

 our zoological text-books were full of the most ridiculous blun- 

 ders in reference to their habits and economy. 



The ordinary form of the Anemones is that of a cylinder, 



