76 MAECH. 



above the water, are here below it, and all displaying 

 their beauties in an incomparably more charming 

 fashion. We can compare the whole submerged wall 

 to nothing else than a parterre of most brilliant flowers, 

 taken bodily and set on end. The eye is bewildered 

 with their number and variety, and knows not which 

 to look at first. Here are the Eosy Anemones, 1 with a 

 firm fleshy column of rich sienna-brown, paler towards 

 the base, and with the upper part studded with indis- 

 tinct spots, marking the situation of certain organs 

 which have an adhesive power. The disk is of a pale 

 neutral tint, with a crimson mouth in the centre, and 

 a circumference of crowded tentacles of the most lovely 

 rose-purple, the rich hue of that lovely flower that 

 bears the name of General Jacqueminot. In those 

 specimens that are most widely opened, this tentacular 

 fringe forms a blossom whose petals overhang the con- 

 cealed column, expanding to the width of an inch or 

 more ; but there are others in which the expansion is 

 less complete in different degrees, and these all give 

 distinct phases of loveliness. We find a few among the 

 rest, which, with the characteristically-coloured ten- 

 tacles, have the column and the disk of a creamy white ; 

 and one in which the disk is of a brilliant orange, in- 



1 Sagartia rosea, of which a specimen, only partially open, is delineated 

 in the centre foreground of Plate VH. 



